The weekly report on unemployment claims released this morning was mixed. New claims rose to 1.1 million from just under 1 million. Continuing claims, however fell about 600,000 to the mid 14 million number. That means that slightly more people sought unemployment compensation for the first time last week which most likely came from people working in businesses that were shut back down or restricted after the second rise in virus cases that peaked a month ago. It also means that the total number of unemployed American workers fell by a large number last week as continuing claims dropped by a lot.
Since last week was the one which the August employment report will use as its basis, we will likely see a big number of new job creations reported for the month. It should be in the region of 2 million jobs created. The unemployment rate should also drop below 10% for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
One note is worth mentioning. This was the first week since the $600 per week federal supplement to unemployment ended. After Congress couldn't agree on an extension, President Trump issued and executive order to authorize $400 payments. That requires states, however, to apply for the funds for this supplement. Only 11 states have done so to date, and one (SD) has said it doesn't need the money. For some reason, none of the big states with Democrat governors have asked for the cash.
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