As the federal jobless benefit expired, around 1.2 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last weeks after being laid off their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of applicants for the benefit has reached more than 1 million for 20 straight weeks. However, the 1.86 million applicants this week was already a decline from the number in the past weeks.
According to CNN, the weekly statistics were released on Thursday by the Department of Labor. The release just came ahead of the monthly job report that will be released come Friday. The anticipated report will give a more comprehensive assessment of the country's current labor market. However, since the said report is expected to be based on past data, the more recent lay-offs that occurred just as COVID-19 cases spiked in some states may not be included.
Moreover, it was reported that only this week, the company that operates travel websites such as booking.com and Kayak, Booking Holdings announced that it will be laying off 25% of its workforce. This means that there are around 4,000 workers from the company that already has or maybe losing their jobs.
In addition, Nike also announced that it will be cutting off its workforce by 500 people from its headquarters in Oregon. Moreover, NBC Universal also said that it has laid off 10 percent of its 35,000 workforce.
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On top of this, Reuters reported that Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global placement firm stated that in July, employers from the US have announced 262,649 job cuts in total. The said number of laid-off workers is the worst monthly total since the beginning of the pandemic. The total lay-offs from the start of 2020 up to today are only more than 100,000 jobs away from the 1.957 million cuts that were announced during the 2001 economic crisis.
According to, Challenger, Gray senior vice president, Andrew Challenger, it is already clear that most of the job losses that have happened this year are already permanent. He also added that the new challenge is for those workers to find new jobs and not be afraid to take jobs that involve facing the public.
The data of the unemployment benefit applicants was released as the debate on the next round of COVId-19 relief funds continue. As the debate continues many Americans will not be receiving any benefits or assistance as they lose their jobs until a compromise is reached.
However, despite the fact that n deal has been reached yet, there are already discussions of continuing the unemployment benefit until December but cutting it off to $400 a week from the previous $600 weekly benefit, NBC News reported.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management's global strategist, Hugh Gimber stated that the clock is already ticking for the lawmakers in the US to end the debate and actually do something for the people who lost their jobs after the government shut down the economy.
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