Unemployment benefits: 847,000 more Americans filed for unemployment in Joe Biden’s first week as president



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On top of that, 426,856 workers have applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program designed to provide help to those who are not eligible for regular state benefits, such as construction workers. PUA claims are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Together, the first claims were $ 1.3 million with no seasonal adjustments.

Continuous unemployment claims, which include workers who have claimed benefits for at least two weeks in a row, edged down to 4.8 million.

A year ago, jobless claims hovered around 200,000 every week. America therefore has a long way to go to return to this healthy level.

To achieve this, Biden signed several executive orders aimed at creating new jobs, with a focus on green energy jobs that will help America prepare for the economy of the future. The White House also proposed an increase in weekly emergency unemployment benefits as part of a $ 1.9 trillion stimulus bill aimed at boosting the economy.

The US economy last year shrank the most since 1946

But Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that the priority should be to vaccinate the American population against Covid-19. No program can help bring the economy back to normal until the pandemic is brought under control.

“There’s been a lot of adaptation – but you can’t adapt hotels, gyms, cinemas, restaurants, bars. That’s millions and millions of people,” Powell said during a press conference.

“And so you’re just going to have to beat the pandemic. … It’s really the bottom line of the economy, it’s getting the pandemic under control, getting everyone vaccinated, putting on masks and all that.” , he added. “This is the most important economic growth policy we can have.”

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