San José, CA - On Thursday, January 20, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of new claims for unemployment insurance rose for the second week in row, to more than 280,000 for the week of January 10-15. This is up almost 40% from the beginning of January. While much of this may be caused by the spike in COVID-19, there have been other signs of economic weakness that started to show up in December.