Another 2.4 million workers filed new unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported, suggesting that the economic pain from the coronavirus is continuing even as states begin to allow businesses to re-open.
The coronavirus has forced nearly 39 million Americans out of work and onto state jobless benefit rolls in nine weeks, leading to levels of unemployment not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The number of weekly claims has slowly declined over the past several weeks. But some economic forecasts also suggest that huge swaths of the workforce could remain unemployed for a prolonged period.
Federal Reserve officials said they worried the U.S. could be facing a long and severe recession if there are multiple outbreaks of coronavirus as lockdown orders are relaxed, in minutes of their April meeting released Wednesday. The central bank officials cited an “extraordinary amount of uncertainty and considerable risks.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned in an update to its economic forecast Tuesday that unemployment will rise to 16 percent in the third quarter if a small business lending program created in a coronavirus stimulus package expires. By the end of 2021, the agency projects unemployment will still be as high as 8.6 percent.
In Washington, Democrats and Republicans hold different views about whether another round of unemployment and small business aid is needed.
The House last Friday passed a mammoth $3 trillion stimulus bill that would expand some unemployment benefits and provide more direct payments to the public.
But Republicans and the Trump administration have said they want to wait and see the effect of three relief packages passed in March, and instead are moving forward on proposals to shield businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits.
President Donald Trump has also signaled he opposes extending the weekly $600 boost in unemployment insurance authorized in one of the coronavirus rescue bills that is due to expire at the end of July.
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May 21, 2020 at 07:45PM
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Unemployment claims rise by 2.4 million as states try to open for business - POLITICO
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