The number of claims for unemployment benefits is on the rise due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last week was the second consecutive week in which the claims for such benefits have shown a surge. This number has reached 885,000 and it is increasing with each passing day.
Since September, this is the week in which the claims have been the highest as an increase of 23,000 claims have been recorded from the previous week. The numbers rose at a maximum level of around 7 million in March and from then, it started to decline. After that, the numbers were not as huge as they were between a margin of 700,000 and 900,000.
In addition to these claims, 455,000 more people reached out to a program introduced by Congress known as the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, which is there to help people that could not avail the basic state benefits.
All of these programs would expire at the end of the month, but lawmakers are trying to settle a deal that can ease people’s condition somehow in this pandemic.
Joe Biden also realizes the importance of such a package at the moment, so even before taking office, which he is going to happen in January, he called for quick action to be taken on this. But unfortunately, there isn’t much done regarding that until now.
On Wednesday, the economic data was released, which showed how the economy of the country performed since the start of this pandemic as the Covid-19 cases surge dramatically during winters.
On the same day, a report showed a decrease of a stop-gap program that was authorized by Donald Trump in which people affected by the pandemic were provided with assistance in wage. This report showed that the incomes of people fell by 0.7 percent in October as compared to the previous month due to the decrease in the Lost Wages Supplemental Payments.
But despite lower wages, the spending has been rising for the 6th month in a row and this time it increased by 0.5 percent.
The US is moving towards the right direction in terms of recovery as the US Census Bureau has stated that the economy has bounced back but experts are concerned as the pace has gotten slow in the 4th quarter and the economy is surely struggling to come back to normal.
According to Jim Baird, the economy could struggle even more depending on the situation of the pandemic, but the vaccine could help us get out of this mess.
