Unemployment claims rise again

About 1.4 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week. The number, which just represents new jobless claims, rose for the first time in four months. But the total number of people receiving unemployment fell by 1.1 million to 16.2 million, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s Thursday report.

How is the economy doing overall? Before the pandemic, the number of new unemployment applications had never topped 700,000 in one week. But it has stayed above 1 million the past 18 weeks. Many companies began rehiring recently, but 22 states have paused or reversed their reopening plans as COVID-19 cases resurged in several regions.

Dig deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher and David Bahnsen discuss the job market on The World and Everything in It.