The number of Americans filing for jobless aid rose last week, signaling that layoffs continue six months after the coronavirus first slammed the economy.
Some 1.1 million people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s an increase of 135,000 from the previous week. Another 543,000 filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a new program to aid the self-employed and gig workers.
Economists had predicted that fewer than 1 million people would apply for unemployment aid.
“A partial economic bounceback looks to be sputtering out,” AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a note.
A staggering 28 million people, or about one-fifth of the U.S. workforce, were receiving some sort of unemployment assistance as of August .
Experts say a sharp decline in weekly benefits after supplementary assistance lapsed in July could hurt consumer spending and weigh on economic growth. States with higher unemployment are seeing a decline in customers in stores, Deutsche Bank economists note.
This is a developing story.