WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 751,000, a still-historically high level that shows that many employers keep cutting jobs in the face of the accelerating pandemic.
A surge in viral cases and Congress' failure so far to provide more aid for struggling individuals and businesses are threatening to deepen Americans' economic pain.
Eight months after the pandemic flattened the economy, weekly jobless claims still point to a stream of layoffs. Before the virus struck in March, the weekly figure had remained below 300,000 for more than five straight years.
Thursday's Labor Department report said continuing claims -- or the total number of Americans claiming ongoing state unemployment assistance -- fell by 538,000 to 7.29 million in the week ending Oct. 24, the sixth-straight decline.
Still, the number of people claiming support in a federal program that offers 13 weeks of extended assistance increased as more Americans exhausted their regular unemployment aid -- which typically expires after six months.
"More than a half year after the pandemic-caused downturn began, we remain in a very stressful time for the U.S. economy," said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate.com.
The job market has been under pressure since the virus paralyzed the economy and has regained barely half the 22 million jobs that were lost to the pandemic in early spring. The pace of rehiring has steadily weakened -- from 4.8 million added jobs in June to 661,000 in September.
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The report comes in the middle of a marathon week for the U.S., complete with a still-undecided presidential election, a Federal Reserve policy meeting, and the monthly jobs report. Applications for jobless benefits have declined in recent months, though they remain high, as businesses continue to experience fallout from the pandemic.
The October jobs report, out today, is forecast to show that 600,000 jobs were added last month and the unemployment rate declined further. The projected gain in payrolls, while solid, would mark a fourth consecutive month of moderating job growth.
Data out Wednesday from ADP Research Institute showed that companies in the U.S. added fewer jobs in October than forecast, though the two reports have often differed greatly in the past six months.
Last week, nearly 363,000 people applied for jobless aid under a new program that extended eligibility for the first time to self-employed and gig workers, up slightly from 359,000 the previous week. That figure isn't adjusted for seasonal trends, so it's reported separately.
All told, the Labor Department said 21.5 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits, though the figure may be inflated by double-counting by some states.
Some states saw bigger declines in initial claims from the week before, including Massachusetts, Georgia, New York, Michigan and Florida.
The financial aid package that Congress enacted in the spring included a $600-a-week federal jobless benefit and $1,200 checks that went to most adults, in addition to assistance for small businesses. All that money has run out. Without additional federal aid, millions of unemployed Americans likely will lose all their jobless benefits in coming weeks and months, probably forcing them to scale back their spending. And many small companies could go out of business.
VIRUS SURGE, WEATHER
In the meantime, new confirmed viral cases in the United States are climbing rapidly, in a sign of the worsening crisis that lies ahead for the winner of this week's presidential election.
As temperatures fall, restaurants and bars will serve fewer customers outdoors. And many consumers may stay home to avoid infection. Dwindling business could force employers to slash more jobs during the winter.
The data firm Womply found that more businesses are shuttering in the face of a covid resurgence and a potentially deteriorating economy: 21% of small businesses were closed as November began, it says, up from 20% in October, 19% in September and 17% in August. And sales growth is slowing at the companies that are open.
"The economy is on its own against the virus," said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at Indeed. "Accelerating cases are an ever-present threat during winter, and a virus surge means economic uncertainty for businesses. Until that uncertainty is eliminated, the labor market will struggle to return to what it used to be."
MORE LAYOFFS
A series of major corporations have announced layoffs recently. Last week, Exxon Mobil said that it was slashing 1,900 jobs from its U.S. workforce. Chevron said it planned to cut a quarter of the employees at its recently acquired Noble Energy, with the pandemic sapping demand for fuel. Charles Schwab announced after completing its purchase of TD Ameritrade that it would cut 1,000 jobs from the combined company.
And Boeing said it would make deeper cuts to its workforce than originally planned. It has been losing money because the viral outbreak has depressed demand for new planes. Boeing expects to end the year with about 130,000 employees, down 30,000 from the start of this year -- far more than the 19,000 reduction it had announced three months ago.
A pandemic-caused jobs crisis is inflicting damage elsewhere in the world, too. When the viral outbreak struck, halting most global travel, 1 million people lost jobs in Spain, for example, and the unemployment rate hit 16.3% in September.
The government has supported the wages of roughly 3.4 million workers and still keeps 600,000 under its national furlough system. But experts warn that Spain needs to fix its job market, which is plagued with temporary and part-time contracts.
In the U.S., experts will also be watching sectors like retailing, and leisure and hospitality, for signs of renewed economic pain.
"Whoever becomes the president faces a very formidable challenge in the coming months, as winter weighs down on certain industries that were able to get by with outdoor service, as extended unemployment benefits expire at the end of the year, and as assistance for student-loan borrowers and renters expires," said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at the career site ZipRecruiter. "A wave of challenges is coming in the direction of workers who have lost their jobs in the pandemic."
Information for this article was contributed by Paul Wiseman of The Associated Press; by Reade Pickert, Kristy Scheuble and Sophie Caronello of Bloomberg News; and by Gillian Friedman of The New York Times.