Joblessness numbers show improvement

After hovering at about 750,000 for the last two weeks, the number of new weekly unemployment applications fell to 709,000 according to the Labor Department’s Thursday report. A new spike in coronavirus cases has triggered increased restrictions in states such as Texas and New York, but the total number of people receiving jobless benefits still dropped from 7.2 million to 6.8 million.

Has the economy been performing well? The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped earlier this week after Pfizer announced its COVID-19 vaccine showed promise, but it has since fallen more than 500 points. The government continues to spend freely: The Treasury Department reported on Thursday that October’s federal deficit topped $284 billion, a record for the month and double that of October 2019. Much of the increased spending went to coronavirus aid.

Dig deeper: Read Charissa Koh’s report in Compassion on stimulus aid’s positive and negative effects on nonprofits.