The daily business briefing: August 7, 2020

Weekly jobless claims again exceed 1 million ahead of July employment report, Trump executive orders target TikTok, WeChat, and more

A man seeking a job
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1. Jobless claims again exceed 1 million ahead of July employment report

Nearly 1.2 million people filed new unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, marking the 20th straight week with more than 1 million initial applications for jobless benefits. Economists had expected a slightly worse employment picture, with 1.4 million new claims. About 16 million Americans continued to receive unemployment payments, down less than 800,000 from the previous week. A total of 54 million Americans have claimed unemployment since the pandemic started. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected the Labor Department to report Friday that the U.S. economy added 1.7 million jobs in July, down from a gain of 4.8 million in June. The forecasts range widely, from 280,000 to 4 million, because economists aren't sure how many layoffs have resulted from spiking COVID-19 cases.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.