Nebraska Sees Jobless Claims Drop as More File Nationally
About 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits in data reported last week, evidence that many Americans are still losing their jobs even as the economy appears to be slowly recovering with more businesses partially reopening.
The latest figure from the Labor Department marked the 10th straight weekly decline in applications for jobless aid since they peaked in mid-March when the coronavirus hit hard. Still, the pace of layoffs remains historically high. The number of people who are receiving unemployment aid fell slightly, a sign that some people who were laid off when restaurants, retail chains and small businesses suddenly shut down have been recalled to work.
The figures are “consistent with a labor market that has begun what will be a slow and difficult healing process,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, an economist at Oxford Economics. “Still, initial jobless claims remain at levels that at the start of the year might have seemed unthinkable.”
Nearly 21 million people are officially classified as unemployed. Even that doesn’t capture the full scope of the damage to the job market. Including people the government said were erroneously categorized as employed in the May jobs report and those who lost jobs but didn’t look for new ones, 32.5 million people are out of work, economists estimate.
Nebraska saw another decrease in new unemployment claims last week, but the number is still well above pre-pandemic levels,
The U.S. Department of Labor reported 4,697 new claims in Nebraska during the week that ended June 6. It’s down from the 5,082 that were received the previous week.
The highest number of weekly claims filed during coronavirus pandemic was 26,539 during the week that ended April 4.
The number of people filing initial unemployment claims in Iowa jumped last week, even as the state continued reopening after taking steps intended to slow spread of the coronavirus.
Iowa Workforce Development reported that 10,112 people filed initial claims in the week ending June 6. That’s compares with 6,920 people who filed in the previous week.
There were 159,966 continuing weekly unemployment claims last week, a decline of 2,596 from the previous week.
In February, the economy fell into a deep recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the association of economists that is the official arbiter of recessions. The Federal Reserve estimated that the economy will shrink 6.5% this year. That would be, by far, the deepest annual contraction on records dating to World War II.
Unemployment benefits are providing significant support for jobless Americans, with total payments having reached $94 billion in May – six times the previous record set in 2010 just after the previous recession. This time, the benefits include an additional $600 a week from the federal government.
But that extra benefit is set to end July 31, and the Trump administration opposes extending it. Its opposition has set up a possible clash with House Democrats, who have approved legislation to extend the $600-a-week in benefits for an additional six months.
Studies suggest that roughly two-thirds of the recipients are receiving total unemployment aid that exceeds their previous paychecks. But many workers are also wary about returning to their old jobs for fear of contracting the virus. And recipients who receive aid can lose their benefits if they turn down job offers.
BLS Discloses ‘Error’ in May Jobless Rate
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is reporting a “misclassification error” in the May unemployment rate that could have thrown off the national jobless rate by 3% overall.
That would mean the unemployment rate of 13.3% – which was viewed as an unexpectedly low rate when initially reported – might have really been 16.3% for May.
In a note at the bottom of the federal agency’s news release for the May rate, the bureau states “a large number of workers who were classified as employed but absent from work” who should have been described as unemployed on temporary layoff due to coronavirus-related business closures.
“However, it is apparent that not all such workers were so classified,” the bureau said in the release. “BLS and the Census Bureau are investigating why this misclassification error continues to occur and are taking additional steps to address the issue.”
The official unemployment rate will not be adjusted. The bureau’s policy is to accept household survey data as recorded to “maintain data integrity,” the release notes.
– Scott Stewart
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