New jobless claims were up 778,000 for the week ending Nov. 21, an increase of 30,000 over the previous week, which was revised up by 6,000 to 748,000, according to the latest weekly Bureau of Labor Statistics report released on Wednesday (Nov. 25).
Almost 20.5 million people claimed benefits in all programs for the week ending Nov. 7, up 135,297 from the previous week. By contrast, just under 1.5 million claimed jobless benefits in all programs in a comparable week in 2019.
Nearly 9.2 million filed for Pandemic Unemployment for the week ending Nov. 7.
New unemployment claims have been below the 1 million level for over three months, much lower than the peak of nearly 7 million.
Economic recovery has slowed amid rising COVID-19 infections, with many states closing schools and instituting new curfews.
In recent weeks, each day has featured a soaring number of daily confirmed coronavirus diagnoses that exceed 100,000, with well over 12 million Americans now infected by the disease.
“While the economy powered through the July wave, at that time the reopening of the economy provided a powerful tailwind to growth. The economy no longer has that tailwind; instead it now faces the headwind of increasing restrictions on activity,” according to a note from JPMorgan Chase economists, per Yahoo Finance.
