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New weekly claims for unemployment benefits stayed flat last week when adjusted for seasonal factors, but rose by more than 20,000 on an unadjusted basis, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
In the week ending Sept. 5, the number of seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 884,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised level of applications.
Without adjustments for seasonal factors, claims rose 857,148 in the week ending Sept. 5, a 2.4 percent increase from the previous week's 837,000 claims.
Claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program meant to cover workers excluded from traditional jobless benefits, also rose to 838,916 last week, an increase of roughly 91,000 applications from the previous week.Taken together, the new data on jobless claims is a troubling sign for a U.S. economy
still suffering from high levels of unemployment and staggeringly high unemployment applications more than five months after the onset of the coronavirus recession. Weekly jobless claims totaled just 208,000 at the same time in 2019 but have remained above 880,000 for more than 25 consecutive weeks.
Comment: When 'social justice' policy makers recreate the past injustices they say they are fighting against, it's a pretty clear indication these people should be the last given any sort of power.