Weekly Jobless Claims Exceed 1 Million as Hopes of a Swift Economic Recovery Are Dashed

The U.S. unemployment rate has been utterly dreadful since the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold, plunging the economy deep into a recession. Last week, there was some encouraging news on the unemployment front, when weekly jobless claims came in below 1 million for the first time since March. But this week, things took a turn for the worse.

The U.S. Department of Labor has reported that for the week ending Aug. 15, jobless claims came in at 1.106 million. It also revised its total number of claims from the previous week from 963,000 to 971,000.

Economists were initially hopeful when they saw that new weekly jobless claims had dipped below the 1 million mark, but this week's data gives us an unwanted reality check -- that we're still a long way from economic recovery, and that the need for boosted unemployment is imminent.

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Source Fool.com