More than 800,000 Americans file for unemployment as stimulus talks remain stalled
More than 800,000 Americans filed new jobless claims last week as talks on a second coronavirus relief package remain stalled.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported 840,000 new unemployment claims Thursday — down by 9,000 from the week before. Weekly claims have remained below 1 million since late August and have been trending downward after hitting a high of 6.8 million in late March when the coronavirus was starting to spread in the United States.
But it’s still higher than some experts expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones predicted 825,000 jobless claims would be filed last week, CNBC reports.
It’s also significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. During the week ending Oct. 5 of last year, 212,000 new claims were filed, according to the Labor Department.
“The level of claims is still staggeringly high,” Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the career site Glassdoor, told The New York Times. “We’re seeing evidence that the recovery is slowing down, whether it’s in slowing payroll gains or in the sluggish improvement in jobless claims.”
The new claims come as President Donald Trump earlier this week squashed hopes for more pandemic relief soon.
Trump said on Oct. 8 he’s restarting talks on the relief bill, despite no evidence indicating that both sides have begun negotiations, The Hill reported.
“I shut down talks two days ago because they weren’t working out. Now they’re starting to work out,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business.
The remarks came two days after Trump said he’s stopping negotiations on the bill until after the election, instead urging focus on the confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business. I have asked @senatemajldr Mitch McConnell not to delay, but to instead focus full time on approving my outstanding nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett,” Trump tweeted on Oct. 6.
House Democrats passed another coronavirus relief bill on Oct. 1, but they have nearly no chance of advancing it through the Republican-controlled Senate. In response, the White House unveiled a $1.6 trillion counteroffer that includes less funding for unemployment and for state and local governments when compared to the bill backed by Democrats.
The Democrats’ $2.2 trillion package, an updated version of the Heroes Act, was unveiled on Sept. 28 before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, The Washington Post reported. Democrats and Republicans have struggled to agree on a follow-up relief package to the CARES Act that went into law in March and provided most Americans with $1,200 payments during the coronavirus pandemic.
Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke again on Monday but didn’t reach a deal, CNBC reported.
The Democrats’ package includes reviving the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefits from the CARES Act that expired at the end of July. The White House offer would include $400 federal benefits per week through the rest of this year, Roll Call reported.
Both stimulus proposals would include another round of $1,200 payments for individuals and $500 for dependents.
Trump tweeted on Oct. 6 that he is “ready to sign” a “stand alone bill for” the $1,200 stimulus checks.
Pelosi and Mnuchin reportedly spoke Wednesday about a standalone bill for airline relief, according to The New York Times.
But on Thursday, Pelosi told reporters she won’t consider a standalone bill for airline funding without promise from the Trump administration of a larger relief bill, CBS News reports.
“The comment I made to the administration last night was: We’re happy to review what that standalone bill would look like as part of a bigger bill, if there is a bigger bill,” Pelosi said, according to The Hill. “But there is no standalone bill.”
The stalled talks come as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned of economic consequences without enough further aid.
“Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses,” he said Tuesday at the National Association for Business Economics annual meeting.
He said there’s less risk of “overdoing it.”
“Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste,” he said. “The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 10:55 AM with the headline "More than 800,000 Americans file for unemployment as stimulus talks remain stalled."