The 20-week total of new claims for unemployment benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic rose to 55.1 million in the week ending Aug. 1, with 1,186,000 new seasonally adjusted initial claims being filed, the U.S. Department of Labor reported this morning.
The total for the week ending Aug. 1 represented a decrease of 249,000 new claims from the previous week’s revised level of 1,435,000.
Aug. 1 happens to be the day that the $600 per week enhanced unemployment benefit in the federal government’s CARES Act ended. A recent survey by Goldman Sachs contained results suggesting that permanent job losses could soon rise with only 16% of companies that received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans being very confident they will be able to maintain payroll without further government relief.
As of this morning, there was no agreement reported among the White House, the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led House on a new relief package.
The Goldman Sachs survey found that 84% of PPP loan recipients will have exhausted their funding by this week. In addition, 63% of small businesses said less than 75% of their pre-Covid revenue has returned.
Meanwhile, initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed by former federal civilian employees totaled 1,403 in the week ending July 25, an increase of 10 from the prior week. There were 1,029 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 101 from the preceding week.
The Labor Department reported that the highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 18 were in: Nevada, 24.9%; Puerto Rico, 23.5%; Hawaii, 21%; California, 18.1%; Louisiana, 17.2%; New York, 16.3%; Connecticut, 15.2%; Georgia, 14.5%; Massachusetts, 14.3%; and Michigan, 13.8%.
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 25 were in: Virginia, up 5,020; Nevada, up 2,842; Missouri, up 2,606; Indiana, up 2,218; and New Jersey, up 2,141.
The largest decreases were in: California, down 44,941; Georgia, down 37,329; Florida, down 17,514; Louisiana, down 13,568; and Texas, down 11,104.
Connecticut had 10,572 new claims for the week ending Aug. 1, a drop of 609 from the 11,181 claims the previous week.
New York had 73,740 new claims for the week ending Aug. 1, a drop of 11,309 from the previous week’s 85,049.
