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News and Views from the People's Struggle

unemployment

By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – The February 2024 employment report released by the Department of Labor on Friday, March 8 continued to show signs of weakness. While total job creation seemed healthy, with 275,000 net new jobs reported by the survey of employers, there were significant downsides to the overall report.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – The January 2024 jobs report was labeled “Blockbuster” by the New York Times, “Hot” by the Wall Street Journal, and “Shockingly Strong” by the Washington Post. Yet the headlines of three of the national newspapers failed to capture the weaker side of the report.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – On Tuesday, September 12, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in 2022. The report on poverty was dire, with the poverty rate as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure, or SPM, jumping almost 60% between 2021 and 2022.

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By Masao Suzuki

Continuing claims hits highest number since November 2021

San José, CA – On Thursday, July 21, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of people collecting unemployment insurance benefits, increased by 51,000 for the week ending July 16. This brought the total number to 1,384,000, the highest since November 2021. New claims for unemployment insurance increased to 251,000, also the highest since November. The increase was only 7000 over the week before, but most economists had expected the number of new claims to fall.

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By Masao Suzuki

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.

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By Masao Suzuki

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.

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By Masao Suzuki

Total number collecting unemployment on the rise again

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San José, CA – During the week ending February 6, almost 800,000 (793,000) people filed for new claims for regular state unemployment insurance. More than 330,000 others applied for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA that covers the self-employed and gig workers. This comes to a total of more than 1.1 million people who have lost their jobs in the past week.

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By Masao Suzuki

Retail sales fall for third month in row

San José, CA – The U.S. economy showed more signs of weakness as the COVID-19 pandemic rages and Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine rollout crashes and burns amid finger-pointing, lies and incompetence. New claims for regular state unemployment rose by more than 20% in the week ending January 9, the biggest gain since the dark days of March when the economy hit a brick wall.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – on Friday, January 8 the U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly report on the state of the job market. While mainstream economists expected economic growth to continue to slow with only 50,000 new jobs, down from a gain of 330,000 jobs in November, the reality was much worse. In December, 140,000 jobs were lost, the first month of losses since the dark days of April. The year ended with 9.8 million fewer jobs than before the recession began, a record high going back to 1939, and almost twice as bad as the previous recession year of 2009. President Trump became the first president since Republican Herbert Hoover set to leave office with a net job loss.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – On Thursday, December 10, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that new claims for regular state unemployment went up by 137,000, or 19.1% for the week ending December 5. This is the biggest increase in applications for unemployment since the first week of April. In addition, new claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA also increased by almost 140,000. The total of almost 280,000 applications by jobless Americans in a week was the second largest jump during the entire recession, raising the danger of a ‘double-dip’ recession, where the economy goes downhill a second time.

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