New unemployment insurance claims push pandemic total to 51.2M

Just a day after a new poll by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, showed that President Trump’s approval rating on handling the economy is underwater, new figures released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor show that approximately 51.2 million people have filed unemployment insurance claims in the past 17 weeks.

The Quinnipiac poll showed that 53% of voters now disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy compared with 44% who approve. That’s a reversal of where things stood in June when 52% approved of his handling of the economy and 45% disapproved.

Trump had generally scored well on the economy, with the new Quinnipiac result being his worst net score on the economy since August 2017. Overall, the new poll showed that registered voters back Democrat Joe Biden over Trump 52% to 37%, Biden’s biggest lead this year.

The reality of the job situation likely is having a strong influence on voter attitudes, with the Labor Department this morning reporting that during the week ending July 11, another 1.3 million people put in new claims for unemployment insurance benefits. That was 10,000 fewer claims than had been filed the week before. It marked the 16th straight week that claims were at least 1 million.

States where COVID-19 cases have exploded recently showed significant numbers of new claims, with California reporting 287,732, which was the highest number. Florida had 129,408, while Georgia had 136,336 and Texas had 105,590 new unemployment insurance claims.

New York had 91,583 new claims for the week ending July 11, down 2,157 from the 93,740 reported for the previous week.

Connecticut had 9,965 new claims, a decrease of 2,302 from the 12,267 the week before.

The Labor Department reported that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 11.9% for the week ending July 4. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 0.2% from 12.4% to 12.2%.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits filed by former federal civilian employees totaled 1,323 in the week ending July 4, a decrease of 8 from the prior week.

There were 1,077 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 56 from the preceding week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending June 27 were in: Puerto Rico, 26.8%; Nevada, 20.9%; Hawaii, 19.9%; New York, 17%; Louisiana, 16.6%; California, 15.9%; Massachusetts,  15.6%; Connecticut, 15.2%; Georgia, 14.1%; and Rhode Island , 14%.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 4 were in: Texas, up 20,506; New Jersey, up 19,410; Maryland, up 10,568; Louisiana, up 9,441; and New York, up 3,906.

The largest decreases for the week ending July 4 were in: Indiana, down 22,725; Florida, down 17,429; California, down 12,571; Georgia, down 12,325; and Oklahoma, down 8,982.