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Category Archives: US unemployment and employment statistics
Europe’s main indices all decline and Japanese equities suffer worst day since 2020 while gold hits fresh record
Stock markets in Europe, Asia and New York tumbled on Friday as fears of a US economic slump grew and technology shares were hit by underwhelming earnings.
Concerns that the US could be sliding towards a recession spurred a global sell-off, which accelerated after a poor employment report on Friday showed that the US jobs market was cooling fast, pushing up the unemployment rate.
Figures show unexpected resiliency of job market as officials try to tamp down 3.4% inflation
The US economy added 272,000 jobs in May, a sign the labor market continued strong amid high interest rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.
The number of May jobs was far higher than the 190,000 economists had expected and topped April’s gains, when a revised 165,000 jobs were added to the economy. The unemployment rate rose to 4% for the first time since January 2022, up from 3.9% in April.
Unprepared system leaves unemployed Americans vulnerable to poverty, losing homes and struggling to pay bills or feed families
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic left millions of Americans jobless in the US, overwhelmingly state unemployment benefit systems that did not have the staffing, technology or resources to handle the influx of those who lost their jobs.
Federal pandemic relief added an additional $600 a week to unemployment benefits which was cut to $300 a week, as most state benefits provide only a fraction of the value of weekly wages for the average worker.
Peter Navarro, a top former White House adviser to Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.
The justice department said in a news release that Navarro was indicted with one count for refusing to appear at a deposition and another for refusing to turn over documents as required by the panel’s subpoena.
Claims dropped by 28,000 for week ending 19 March as at least a dozen states consider checks to ease burden of inflation
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years as the US job market continues to show strength in the midst of rising costs and the pandemic.
Jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000 for the week ending 19 March, the lowest since September of 1969, the labor department reported on Thursday. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs.
The global semiconductor shortage and ongoing disruption to supply chains continue to knock carmakers’ profits.
Volkswagen and Stellantis both suffered financial hits in the third quarter the year, as a result of the global shortage of computer chips, which has prevented the firms from producing as many vehicles as they had originally planned.
Drop in quarterly gross domestic product comes as 1.43m people file for unemployment benefits, a second week of increases, amid Covid-19 pandemic
The US economy shrank by an annual rate of 32.9% between April and June, its sharpest contraction since the second world war, government figures revealed on Thursday, as more signs emerged of the coronavirus pandemic’s heavy toll on the country’s economy.
The record-setting quarterly fall in economic growth compared to the same time last year came as another 1.43 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, a second week of rises after a four-month decline.
Dow Jones loses more than 1,800 points while S&P down 5% after US coronavirus infections hit 2m
Stock markets tumbled in the US and Europe on Thursday amid growing fears over the long-term economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The sell off started after the US labor department announced another 1.5 million people had filed for unemployment benefits and the number of coronavirus infections passed 2m even as states across the US continued to relax their quarantine measures.
National Bureau of Economic Research says economic growth in the US peaked in February and has since entered its first downturn since 2007 to 2009
The United States is officially in a recession, ending the longest economic expansion in US history, the committee that calls downturns announced on Monday.
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) said that economic growth in the US peaked in February and has since entered its first downturn since 2007 to 2009.
Jerome Powell: pace of downturn ‘without modern precedent’
Lowest-paid Americans hit hardest by coronavirus pandemic
More evidence of how the coronavirus pandemic is widening income inequality has emerged after the Federal Reserve announced 40% of households earning less than $40,000 included someone who has lost a job since February.
The US and Europe have taken different approaches to tackling pandemic-induced unemployment but which is best long term?
In two, terrible, months the coronavirus pandemic has driven unemployment in the US to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression. Did it have to be this way?
Covid-19 has cost more than 33 million Americans their jobs in the last seven weeks – 10% of the entire US population. The official unemployment rate had shot up from 4.4% to 14.7% on Friday – a figure that probably wildly underestimates the true scale of job losses.
More than 20 million people in the US lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate more than trebled as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the world’s largest economy, triggering a financial crisis unseen since the Great Depression.
The Department of Labor announced Friday that the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March and a near 50-year low of 3.5% in February before the US was hit by the virus.
Dr Deborah Birx reportedly had to convince Trump to come out against Georgia’s plan to start reopening non-essential businesses this Friday.
Trump said during yesterday’s press conference that he disagreed “strongly” with Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s reopening plan, which many public health experts have warned is dangerously hasty.
At a meeting before Wednesday’s briefing, task force members discussed the likelihood of being asked about [Kemp’s] controversial move to open up many businesses such as nail salons and bowling alleys, [a White House] source added. ...
During the meeting, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other task force members said if the scientists were not in agreement with Trump on the Georgia issue during the news conference it would pose a problem.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said she would likely extend the state’s stay-at-home order while looking at allowing some activties with restrictions in place, emphasizing that the state’s reopening would take place in waves.
“It will permit some activity if our numbers continue to go down and our testing continues to go up,” the Democratic governor told MSNBC this morning. “But It’s too early to say precisely what each wave looks like and when it happens.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says reopening has to be "strategic and thoughtful": "I've heard governors across the country, on both sides of the aisle, say it's not going to be like flipping a light switch, we're not just going to go back to pre-Covid 19 posture" pic.twitter.com/6gGHbUkFPC
Lynne Reback developed a rote routine while trying to file for unemployment in her home state of Florida: log into the system, watch the loading bar slowly inch across the screen, get kicked out. Then she would start over.
It took three days for Reback to get her application through Connect, Florida’s online portal for unemployment insurance applications. Though it has been almost a month since her application was submitted, it is still “pending” whenever she checks its status.