A number of benchmarks released Thursday point to a stagnant economy still staggering from the impact of the coronavirus.
First time unemployment claims, released by the Department of Labor Thursday morning, shows that 837,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims during the week ending September 26th.
That’s a 4.2% decrease from the previous week, but nearly four times higher than one year ago. During the previous week, 26.5 million Americans received some form of unemployment claims, an increase of half a million from the previous week.
In other economic news, consumer spending increased just 1% in August, the slowest rate since the metric fell 12.7% at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in April, according to the Department of Commerce, ABC News reports.
Household incomes also fell by 2.7%, according to the Commerce report. The reductions were likely a result of tens of millions of families losing a $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement that ceased at the end of July.