Stubbornly High: Unemployment Benefits Remain Four-Times Pre-Pandemic Level

The pace of America’s jobs recovery continues to slow. Another 840,000 workers filed for initial unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. That was down from 849,000 in the previous week, but more than economists had expected. Every person who can go back to work is a win in this crisis. But the improvement in first-time benefit claims is small to say the least, as they remain about four-times higher as they were before the pandemic. “Let’s hope we soon break below the 800k mark in initial claims soon because hanging around the 800k+ level is still not a good place to be, especially going into the winter,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, in a note to clients. Read more at CNN Business.