The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits fell for an eighth straight week last week, likely as some people returned to work, but claims remained at astonishingly high levels, suggesting it could take the economy a while to rebound as businesses reopen.
The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, also showed a decline in the number of people receiving unemployment checks in mid-May. The data, however, excludes gig workers and others collecting benefits under a federal government program.
“We are entering the confusion stage for the employment and unemployment numbers,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economics in Holland, Pennsylvania. “Reopening of the economy is taking people from government payrolls to private sector payrolls, which is good. But the PPP is creating problems with understanding what exactly is happening.”
The astonishingly high level of claims, nearly three months after the shuttering of non-essential businesses to control the spread of COVID-19, points to a long recovery for the economy. FILE PHOTO: A handful of pedestrians walk through Times Square as streets remain relatively quiet due to the continuing outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the Manhattan borough of New York U.S., May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Economists cautioned against reading too much into the sharp decline, noting that some states required residents to file for benefits on a bi-weekly basis, which they said was injecting volatility into the data. The drop in continuing claims was concentrated in Florida, California, Washington State and Ohio.
These workers do not qualify for regular state unemployment insurance and are not included in both the weekly jobless claims and continuing claims figures. There were 1.193 million claims submitted last week under the PUA program, on top of the 7.793 million applications processed in the week ending May 9.
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