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US jobless claims are hovering at high levels
The number of Americans applying for new unemployment benefits fell last week, but it is still very high, indicating a slowdown in the labor market as the country faces an increase in new cases of Covid-19 threatening a nascent economic recovery.
On Thursday, the US Department of Labor said that the new total requests for adjusted government unemployment benefits, in light of seasonal factors, reached 1,186,000 in the week ending August 1. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the number of applications to reach one million and 415 thousand in the latest week.
The number of Coronavirus cases rose across the country last month, forcing authorities in some of the worst-hit areas in the west and south to close companies again or not to allow them to reopen, so workers can return to their homes again. Although infections declined nearly five percent nationwide, they increased last week in Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri and 17 other states.
The health crisis is damaging demand for goods and services, leading to widespread layoffs in sectors of the economy that were not initially affected when unnecessary activities such as restaurants and bars were closed in mid-March to slow the spread of the virus. Companies are cautious about hiring new workers.
