WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – First-time unemployment claims totaled 1.54 million last week. That’s better than Wall Street expected.
The pace of unemployment claims declined for the tenth week in a row as the U.S. job market continues its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Still, the number of unemployed people is at historic highs. The number of people collecting benefits for two weeks or more is just under 21 million. And the insured unemployment rate, or the number of people receiving benefits as a percentage of the total labor, force fell two-tenths of a percent to 14.2 percent.
Many people are heading back to work but there are many businesses that aren’t seeing the same demand for services and are laying people off under the financial strain.
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