Thursday’s unemployment data showed that 1.6 million Americans filed new unemployment or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims last week, even as Senate Republicans continue to block a House-passed bill that would provide trillions in emergency relief funds.
While the number of people filing traditional unemployment claims — about 881,000 — was down a bit from the previous week, layoffs remained high. When combined with Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims, the number of total new unemployment claims was higher than the previous week.
Tens of millions of Americans remain out of work. Continue reading.