Just over a week before the programs expire on Dec. 26, claims for pandemic-specific unemployment benefits are on the rise with nearly 1 million new people receiving unemployment assistance through the temporary programs, the latest data from the Labor Department shows.
What is going on: On Nov. 28, 14 million people received unemployment benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) programs, an increase of 958,000 from the previous week.
- 1.4 million Americans filed unemployment claims for the first time last week, with 935,000 claims for traditional unemployment benefits and 455,000 claims for the PUA program.
What to watch: The White House and Congress leaders remain at odds with a coronavirus aid package worth about $ 900 billion that would expand unemployment programs. It increasingly looks like the talks will drag into the weekend.
The big picture: Unlike previous weeks, as the number of people receiving traditional unemployment benefits declined and the number of Americans on long-term unemployment programs like the PEUC increased, the number rose across the board in the last week of November.
- The number of people on traditional unemployment benefits increased by 552,000.
- The number of PUAs received increased by 689,000.
- PEUC was up 269,000.
- Comprehensive benefits increased by 79,000.
- In total, the number of Americans on unemployment benefits increased by 1.6 million.
- For the week of November 28, 20.6 million Americans received some type of unemployment benefit
Make it clear: These numbers “really underscore the vulnerability of the job market, especially now as the second resurgence of the coronavirus [is] leading to further business closures and additional job losses, ”Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel, told CNBC.
- More than 247,000 new COVID-19 infections were confirmed in the US, and data from Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project showed a record 113,000 people hospitalized with the virus.
Pay attention: Seasonally adjusted figures from the Labor Department showed 885,000 first claims for unemployment benefits, 50,000 fewer claims than the unadjusted figures.
- The Labor Department has said it agrees with a report from the Government Accountability Office, stating that its weekly publications “do not provide an accurate estimate of the total number of individuals actually claiming unemployment insurance.”