Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Sat 04/20/2024 View Fri 04/19/2024 View Thu 04/18/2024 View Wed 04/17/2024 View Tue 04/16/2024 View Mon 04/15/2024 View Sun 04/14/2024
2020-05-17 Economy
New jobless claims totaled over 2.9M last week, bringing total to 36.5M since mid-March
[Washington Examiner] New applications for unemployment benefits totaled over 2.9 million last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Economists had projected 2.7 million new jobless claims.

The number of workers seeking aid remains historically high but has dropped considerably from the nearly 7 million claims that were filed the week ending March 28.

Since the economy halted in mid-March to slow the spread of the coronavirus, 36.5 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits, an unprecedented figure since the federal government began tracking unemployment in the 1930s.

Jobless claims have skyrocketed. This week last year, there were only 217,000 new claims made. Similarly, more than 25 million workers claimed benefits in all programs for the week ending April 25. That figure was 1.6 million for the same week in 2019.

In California, the Labor Department shows, nearly a third of workers, 27.7%, were unemployed for the week ending April 25. In Michigan, nearly a quarter were jobless, 23.1%, for the same week.

The largest job losses last week occurred in Connecticut, where over 298,000 filed for benefits, a figure that is not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday warned that the job crisis could cause lasting damage.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-05-17 01:39|| || Front Page|| [9 views ]  Top

#1 Report Claims Two-Thirds of Americans Are Making More on Unemployment Than When They Were Working
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-17 02:51||   2020-05-17 02:51|| Front Page Top

#2 ...only problem is that 'generous' unemployment is unsustainable when the tax based goes south. Watch the volume go up on local and state government bailouts.
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-05-17 05:48||   2020-05-17 05:48|| Front Page Top

#3 Did I say it's sustainable? All I meant, the World is the way it is.

p.s. I had an opportunity to think about the argument we had a few days ago. About armed protesters. I still think that the guy who brought 0.5 HMG belongs in an lunatic asylum - or, you can force him to fire it from the hip.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-17 05:58||   2020-05-17 05:58|| Front Page Top

#4 ..and then there is this.

I like the comment -

Americans are insane lol. You know the reason why no one invades you guys is not because of the military but because the civilian population is just as armed as the army that's invading.
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-05-17 06:33||   2020-05-17 06:33|| Front Page Top

#5 ^Crazy people.😃
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-17 07:18||   2020-05-17 07:18|| Front Page Top

#6 The lockdown must end now. It is obviously causing far more damage to our society than it is preventing.

It's akin to using a flamethrower to deal with rats in the attic: we are burning down our house in order to save it.
Posted by Lex 2020-05-17 09:43||   2020-05-17 09:43|| Front Page Top

#7 we are burning down our house in order to save it.

And some can then build a better house, without rats.
Posted by Skidmark 2020-05-17 10:08||   2020-05-17 10:08|| Front Page Top

#8 Nice comeback. With whose money, Skid? From your magic money tree?
Posted by Lex 2020-05-17 10:12||   2020-05-17 10:12|| Front Page Top

#9 With all this rain it's actually doing quite well.
Posted by Skidmark 2020-05-17 10:50||   2020-05-17 10:50|| Front Page Top

#10 Give some to Newsom. He just said he's gonna be about $54 billion light.
Posted by Lex 2020-05-17 10:55||   2020-05-17 10:55|| Front Page Top

#11 So the rest of the world thinks we're a bunch of heavily armed maniacs who start shooting at the least provocation. Is that such a bad thing?
Posted by Matt 2020-05-17 11:15||   2020-05-17 11:15|| Front Page Top

#12 #4 & 11. I was going to pass on this, but ...
Did such considerations stop you from going into Somalia? Afghanistan?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-05-17 11:21||   2020-05-17 11:21|| Front Page Top

#13 ^ I jest.
Posted by Matt 2020-05-17 11:47||   2020-05-17 11:47|| Front Page Top

#14 Did such considerations stop you from going into Somalia?

The military asked to bring in M1s, but Clinton's SecDef said no. Les Aspin if I recall. The problem isn't the military, but the pols who want to look like they're doing something but don't want to actually execute honest to goodness, bloody, destructive, no holds bar war. BTW, we got into Somali because the Legacy Infotainment Enterprises played everyone with the 'crisis' and something had to be done narrative. I sat there watching the 'news' and knew exactly what they were doing.
Posted by Procopius2k 2020-05-17 12:03||   2020-05-17 12:03|| Front Page Top

#15 ^ Accurate
Posted by Frank G 2020-05-17 12:52||   2020-05-17 12:52|| Front Page Top

#16  The lockdown must end now.

The lockdown is ending now, willy-nilly, and not just around the U.S. From the Daily Mail:

Fury in Germany as thousands join protests across country over lockdown measures and a vaccine plan by Bill Gates as Angela Merkel's popularity falls
  • Thousands of protesters have gathered in Stuttgart, Munich and Berlin

  • What started off as small protests against lockdown measures have grown

  • Dissent against measures has been forming online along with wild conspiracies

  • A tombstone was placed in front of Chancellor Angela Merkel's electoral offices

  • The Bundesliga will begin playing matches today for the first time in two months

I hope European Conservative will weigh, if he happens to be about.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-05-17 13:45||   2020-05-17 13:45|| Front Page Top

#17 As for unemployment, that is a time-limited benefit. Not to mention this, from g(r)omgoru’s HotAir article in #1:

A big reason: a substantial beef-up of unemployment insurance via the coronavirus economic stimulus.

Month 1 had the $1200 stimulus payment. Month 2 and beyond will not, despite the trumpeting of that new stimulus bill that just passed in the House — Senator McConnell announced in response that no new stimulus efforts will be considered for quite some time in the Senate, at least until the last round’s monies have all been paid out and the results analyzed to see if there really is further need.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-05-17 14:21||   2020-05-17 14:21|| Front Page Top

#18 Sorry. I just woke up, or I would have read beyond that sentence from the HotAir article before posting. The next bit adds:

As noted by The Daily Wire, the federal government’s $2 trillion CARES relief package greenlit an additional $600 per week in unemployment insurance for those sidelined by COVID-19-related closures.

The $600 figure was chosen because it would raise the average payment from last year — roughly $370 weekly — to the average lost 2020 salary (approximately $970).

But with states opening up, the feds should have justification to cut off that largess soon, first by accepting no new applications, then by cutting off payments to those called back.
Posted by trailing wife 2020-05-17 14:29||   2020-05-17 14:29|| Front Page Top

02:07 Grom the Reflective
02:06 Grom the Reflective
02:05 Angealing+B.+Hayes4677
02:03 Grom the Reflective
01:03 DooDahMan
01:00 DooDahMan
00:58 Grom the Reflective
00:35 Uleremp and Company7042
00:34 3dc
00:32 Uleremp and Company7042
00:14 DooDahMan









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com