After a single week under one million, the Department of Labor weekly report of first time unemployment claims jumped above the one million mark again, for the 21st time in 22 weeks.
First time unemployment claims for the week ending August 15th were 1.106 million, and the previous week was revised up to 971,000. It continues a 22 week streak of the highest claims in all of American history. It appears that last week’s report, which dipped below one million new claims for the week, was an abberation.
More than 57 million unemployment people have filed for benefits since the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation in March with 28 million Americans collecting some type of unemployment benefits for the week ending August 1st.