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One Year Since The Covid-19 Pandemic Began And America Is Still Down 10 Million Jobs 

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Nearly one year after the Covid-19 pandemic initially shut down America the nation is still finding itself down by 10 million jobs compared to where we were at this time last year. 745,000 additional Americans have filed for first-time unemployment benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis last week, according to the US Labor Department. 

The number of new claims is up from the previous week, however, it’s slightly less than what economists were expecting for the month of March. 436,696 workers also applied for Pandemic Unemployment benefits which are mainly available for gig workers or self-employed individuals. 

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First-time jobless claims in total equated to about 1.2 million without seasonal adjustments for last week. Continued benefit claims, which specifically count applicants that submitted their forms for at least two weeks in a row or more, reached 4.2 million in the last week of February, which is slightly smaller when compared to the week prior. 

At this point last year the labor crisis was just beginning with about 6.9 million Americans applying for first-time unemployment, and millions of jobs disappearing in general. While millions of new jobs have been created within the past year and many Americans were able to get back to work, the nation is still struggling to rebuild the economy.

The American Department of Labor employment report cited “fewer jobs added in February than expected: 117,000 versus the 177,000 forecast. Even though the private sector report and the government’s official figures, which are due Friday at 8:30 am ET, aren’t correlated, it’s not a great sign.”

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Economists estimate that about 182,000 new jobs were added to the US market in February, which is up 49,000 from the previous month. When compared to February 2020, however, the nation is still down about 9.7 million jobs; at that point in time the unemployment rate for America was actually at a 50-year low of 3.5%.

“The expectations are widely different, ranging from a 100,000 jobs lost to 500,000 jobs gained. We expect the US jobs recovery to show some encouraging progress in February,” said Lydia Boussour, lead US economist at Oxford Economics.

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines and the reopening of the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses will hopefully help assist the nation in creating new jobs. The winter storms that have been impacting the country, however, are also influencing how many new jobs are created. The unemployment rate is currently projected to remain at 6.3% for now as well, however, the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell claimed last week that the actual unemployment rate is likely closer to 10%.

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Another 751,000 Americans Filed For Unemployment Last Week 

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With everyone being so focused on the close race to the White House this week, many have forgotten we’re currently in the middle of one of the worst health and economic crises in history. While we may not know who the next President of the United States is quite yet, if one thing is for sure, whoever it is will have to deal with the nation’s massive unemployment problem. 

Last week, another 751,000 Americans claimed first-time unemployment benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the US Labor Department. Compared to the week prior those numbers are actually slightly decreased, however, the nation has watched hundreds of thousands of citizens lose their jobs every week for the past nine months, so many are wondering when they’ll receive some sort of relief. 

Beyond that, 362,883 workers found out they weren’t eligible for regular state benefits that could be claimed under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. If you add up those totals that’s 1.1 million Americans who filed first-time claims last week. 

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Economists have been adamant throughout this pandemic that one of their biggest concerns would be a plateauing of total initial claims due to a slowdown in the job market. This concern is now a stark reality for so many US residents who have been continuously unemployed and trying to keep their loved ones afloat in the middle of one of the worst global health crises in history. 

Continued jobless claims, which account for workers who have applied for benefits two or more weeks in a row, reached 7.3 million, which is about half a million less than what it was the previous week. However, it’s important to note that even though the number of continued jobless claims has decreased that doesn’t necessarily mean that the amount of unemployed individuals has reduced.

In fact, compared to previous weeks that’s a much slower decline. One of the reasons these claims could be going down could be due to the fact that people have exhausted their state benefits and are now trying to take advantage of other government programs to help in the meantime. States commonly provide around 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. 

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These state-run programs have greatly benefited certain individuals who have run out of their Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which was obviously created as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the week of October 17th nearly 4 million Americans received PEUC payments, which was a 280,000 increase when compared to the week prior. 

Many Americans are worried about the results of the 2020 election as well as what type of programs will be created with the New Year as the pandemic continues to worsen. Many of the various pandemic relief initiatives for unemployed individuals are set to expire at the end of 2020. Andrew Stettner is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who recently spoke with the press about what the US needs to do for its people to help us stay afloat as a country. 

“There are simply not enough jobs being created to support all of the workers running out of aid before the end of 2020. It is now time to reach a deal that keeps the lifelines of pandemic relief going into next year. We urgently need action before the holiday season.”

The government is set to publish its October job report this Friday, which economists are projecting to show an additional 600,000 jobs being created for unemployed individuals within the past month. However, even if those numbers hold true America would still be down by more than 10 million jobs when compared to the numbers in February right before the pandemic hit.

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Weekly Jobless Claims Drop To Lowest Level Since Beginning Of Pandemic 

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New filings for jobless claims in America totaled 787,000 last week, marking nearly the lowest it’s been since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March. Once the global health crisis hit America, citizens were losing their jobs by the millions every week, now, as the pandemic continues on and election day gets closer and closer, individuals are gearing up for an unpredictable rest of the year; luckily the entire year has prepared us for that. 

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were initially projecting the claims to hit 875,000 by the end of the week of October 11th, the nearly 100,000 difference is huge for the professionals who have been closely monitoring the economy since it began to dwindle in march. 

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Last week’s total marks the second-lowest new claim amount since March 14th; in seven months. March 14th also marked the first week that companies and businesses across the country began laying off their employees to cope with the initial economic impact of the first shutdown efforts. 

The previous week – October 3rd – saw 842,000 claims, meaning there was a 55,000 decrease in claims this week. One of the biggest reasons for this decline in claims is likely due to the fact that a lot of workers in America have now exhausted their regular benefits and are moving to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance emergency compensation program. 

During the week of October 3rd 509,828 Americans filed to receive compensation from the Pandemic Assistance program, bringing the total number of citizens using the program up to 3.3 million. The recipients in this program get an extra 13 weeks of financial compensation once they’ve gone through their initial 26 weeks of eligibility. 

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Continuous claims are also declining in America, meaning the individuals who are filing jobless claims for two or more weeks consecutively are also going down. That level dropped by 1.02 million citizens to 8.37 million individuals receiving continuous payments. Ian Shepherdscon is a chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics who recently spoke with the media about the improvement that comes along with these declining rates. 

“Some people no longer claiming benefits may have dropped out of the labor force, while some might have taken non-payroll gig or freelance jobs. Moreover, continuing claims lag initial claims, so if initial claims start rising again, continuing claims will follow.”

Claims initially surged the week of March 21st amid the government imposed lockdowns that appeared all across the nation. In late March the weekly total of jobless claims peaked at 6.9 million. Since the beginning of the pandemic about 11.5 million people have become employed after being laid off for pandemic-related reasons, however, a little more than half of the total number of citizens who lost their jobs due to Covid-19 are still unemployed. 

Opposing factions in the nation’s government have delayed another round of stimulus payments from being distributed to Americans, however, a deal is likely to come into fruition before election day.

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1.3 Million Americans Applied For First-Time Unemployment Last Week

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Another 1.3 million people have filed for first-time unemployment this week, according to the US Department of Labor. These filings come nearly four months after the coronavirus pandemic began. While that number is 10,000 less when compared to the prior weeks data, the fact that millions of Americans are filing for unemployment continuously in the middle of a global health crisis is staggering. 

Rubella Farooqi is the chief US economist for High Frequency Economics, and recently spoke with the media about the high risk of permanent job losses that will extend beyond the pandemic. 

“Overall, filings remain high and are declining at a stubbornly slow pace. The pace could slow even further or reverse in coming weeks in response to a surge in virus cases and related closures of businesses.” 

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Continued claims, or unemployment claims from workers who have filed for at least two weeks in a row, has remained at around 17 million each week. On an unadjusted claim basis, the claims rose by more than 838,000 within the last week alone. This was the first major increase in both unadjusted initial and continued claims for unemployment in several weeks. 

This consistent rise in claims is further proving that Covid-19 recovery in terms of health and the economy is stalling and continuing to dwindle. The reports have made it clear that every state that’s decided to prematurely reopen is now seeing massive spikes in cases and deaths. For example, Florida is now being referred to as the new epicenter for Covid-19 because of how poorly health and safety procedures are being enforced. Beyond the catastrophic health implications that this increase in case numbers implies, the economic toll it’s having on citizens is just as severe. 

Glassdoor Senior Economist Daniel Zhao recently spoke with the media about the unemployment benefits in this country and the lack of effort from Congress to extend the packages and increase the financial compensation, despite being in one of the worst health/economic conditions America has ever seen. 

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“The risk of a surprise drop in employment in July is rising, pointing to a roller coaster recovery as the labor market starts to turn down again.”

Almost 14.3 million Americans have claimed continued pandemic benefits across 48 states during the month of June; nearly 406,000 a week. That number of first-time filers for pandemic unemployment assistance has increased to almost 1 million this past week alone. 

The pandemic program specifically provides temporary benefits to workers who typically aren’t eligible for unemployment. This includes freelancers, independent contractors, the self-employed, and patients who are currently suffering from Covid-19. 

Each state in America has collectively delivered more than $35 billion in benefits to its residents last month; for comparison, they only shelled out about $4 billion in March before the virus became a major issue. The reality is, however, more states are likely to look to the federal government for loans within the coming months, as a majority of them have already spent their budgets trying to assist their unemployed residents. 

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2.5 Million Jobs Were Created In May, But The Economy Is Still Suffering

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Over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs during the first two months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The month of May, however, offered a glimmer of hope, as the unemployment rate decreased from 14.7% to 13.3%, and 2.5 million individuals regained some sort of full-time employment. 

In April alone 20 million Americans lost their jobs due to Covid-19 related reasons. Originally, economists were predicting the unemployment rate to increase to 20%, and while those experts have so far been refuted, the economic damage that’s already been done is vast. 

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As all 50 states begin easing their quarantine restrictions, more individuals have been able to return to work, or find new work more easily. Within May, 1.2 million new jobs were created, and the weekly rate of job loss went from 6.6 million in April, to 1.9 million just last week. Obviously, 1.9 million jobs lost per week is still a shocking amount of individuals losing their source of income during a global pandemic, however, during a time of such economic/political unrest, it’s better than nothing. 

“America is now witnessing a shift from temporary to permanent layoffs. The US pandemic initially hit the leisure and hospitality industry hardest, now the damage is spreading further, states are running out of cash and companies are burning through their stimulus checks. The longer this goes on, the bigger the chance of permanent consequences. Without further help from Washington local governments and businesses will have to make some very uncomfortable decisions,” says Jason Reed, a professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

The unemployment numbers that we see everyday on the news don’t even give the full scope of the situation. In a broader measure of unemployment that specifically counts workers who have either given up looking for a job, or are currently part-time looking for a full-time job, the numbers show even more historical numbers. The specific measure is known as U6 and the rate of unemployment went from 7% to 21.2% throughout the entire pandemic. 

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“The sheer volume, size and rapidity of losses is something I have never seen before. It took the US 16 months to reach a peak of 10% unemployment in the last recession. I’m hopeful the job market can start recovering in the months ahead, but worry a lack of political action could lead to deeper losses,” William Rodgers, the former chief economist at the US Department of Labor, who also has been studying the jobs report for 20 years. 

The federal government has since signed off on $1.6 trillion in funding to help the economic impact of Covid-19, however, a majority of that fund has already been spent. Rodgers also emphasized that the closing of more businesses is what’s going to continue to hit the economy the hardest, especially if we receive a second wave of cases amid all the protests that have been occurring throughout the past month. 

Congress is discussing another aid package that would distribute $3 trillion to American citizens, however, the Republican senators are resisting that plan. However, with the future of this pandemic and its continuous economic impact still unknown, the people need the government on their side now more than ever.

Remember, if you’re planning on attending a protest within the coming weeks, continue to practice social distancing as much as possible, and wear a mask at all times. Wash your hands, clothes, and body the second you get home, and keep listening to your healthcare officials.