1.2 million people filed new unemployment claims last week

America's record unemployment numbers have hit a roadblock in their recovery.

Just under 1.2 million people filed new unemployment claims in the past week, Labor Department numbers released Thursday indicate. This marks the 20th straight week where new unemployment claims topped 1 million, and continues a streak of new unemployment numbers only barely recovering from the week before.

Thursday's numbers beat economists' expectations of 1.4 million new claims filed. Still, 16 million Americans are continuing to receive unemployment insurance, less than 800,000 down from the week before. A massive 54 million Americans have claimed unemployment since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. And as of last Friday, both new filers and those still receiving benefits won't get the $600/week boost in unemployment insurance Congress instituted at the beginning of the pandemic, or any unemployment boost at all.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Some of these 1.2 million claims can likely be attributed to filing backlogs. But The Washington Post's Heather Long suggests it's painting another picture: "A lot of layoffs are becoming permanent at this point," leading to a holdup in America's employment recovery. Kathryn Krawczyk