Between May 9 and May 15, 444,000 people applied for an allowance, compared to 478,000 in the first week of May and 460,000 expected by analysts.
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Weekly jobless claims continued to decline in early May in the United States, reaching their lowest level since the start of the pandemic, with economic activity gradually picking up, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Labor.
Between May 9 and May 15, 444,000 people registered for unemployment benefit, up from 478,000 in the first week of May, according to data revised up slightly.
It’s better than expected, since analysts were counting on 460,000 registrations.
The total number of beneficiaries of unemployment benefit is also falling, and is just below the 16 million mark in the last week of April, according to data also released on Thursday.
Job creations were very disappointing in April, with only 266,000, far from the expected million. And the unemployment rate even picked up slightly for the first time in a year (6.1%).
Republicans point the finger at more generous aid for the unemployed in the face of the number of jobs destroyed with the pandemic, and which now encourage, according to them, the unemployed to stay at home rather than looking for a job.
Many employers are struggling to recruit, especially in the least qualified positions, and therefore the least well paid.
And 21 of the 27 republican state governors have planned to reduce or even eliminate this additional aid, to pay, again, only the usual allowances, for the usual duration, that is to say 3 to 6 months. at most. Some 2.5 million people, who have exhausted their rights or are self-employed, will then no longer receive any allowance, according to calculations by analysts at Oxford Economics.
President Joe Biden recently reaffirmed the need to maintain this aid, while warning those who would benefit from the generosity of the public authorities.
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