Article

2021-05-20 Economy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 444,000, a new pandemic low and a sign that the job market keeps strengthening as consumers spend freely again, viral infections drop and business restrictions ease.

Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that applications declined 34,000 from a revised 478,000 a week earlier. The number of weekly jobless claims — a rough measure of the pace of layoffs — has declined steadily since the year began.

The data release coincides with rapid moves by nearly all the nation’s Republican governors to cut off a $300-a-week federal unemployment benefit that they and many business executives blame for discouraging the unemployed from seeking jobs. Those cutoffs of federal jobless aid will begin in June.

Twenty-two states, from Texas and Georgia to Ohio and Iowa, have acted to block the federal government’s $300 weekly payment for the unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis. Two more states, Florida and Kansas, are considering doing so. Those 24 states all have Republican governors and state legislatures.

Unemployed Americans have been able to receive the federal benefit, which was included in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion financial rescue package, on top of their state jobless aid.

Posted by Besoeker 2021-05-20 09:53|| || Front Page|| [11 views ] Top

#1 In just over 100 days, who can argue the extraordinary genius of Biden-Harris administration ?

Posted by Besoeker 2021-05-20 10:09|| 2021-05-20 10:09|| Front Page Top

#2 typical AP spinning

the 'new jobless claims' peaked in April 2020 at about 6 million, when much of the economy shut down; since then, almost every month has seen a decline

Posted by Lord Garth 2021-05-20 11:12|| 2021-05-20 11:12|| Front Page Top

#3 Those 24 states all have Republican governors and state legislatures.

Not true. Our governor (Kansas) is a democrat machine cog nominated because of who she slept with. She has a nice collection of cats, loves short walks, parroting authoritarian policies two weeks after the leaders, and accessorizing her sign language model.

Posted by swksvolFF 2021-05-20 11:48|| 2021-05-20 11:48|| Front Page Top

#4 This is genuinely good news on the employment front.

Now if we can just avoid the inflation monster...

Posted by Tom 2021-05-20 12:31|| 2021-05-20 12:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Right. Last week we saw new jobs were created at 25% of the expected rate. What I see is an anemic economy where the employed are afraid to take risks.

Posted by Whains Speatch8051 2021-05-20 16:06|| 2021-05-20 16:06|| Front Page Top