While more people are going back to work everyday?
More are also being laid off….
The extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits will run out in July if Congress does not extend it…So far Republicans do NOT want an another few months of it…
THAT will be felt in the economy if it disappears….
An estimated 2.1 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week despite the gradual reopening of businesses around the country, bringing the running total since the coronavirus shutdowns took hold in mid-March to about 41 million, the government said Thursday.
The figures underscored the continuing damage to businesses and livelihoods from the outbreak that has now killed at least 100,000 people in the U.S., more than the number of Americans lost in the Vietnam and Korean wars combined, and more than 33 times the death toll on 9/11.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 14.7% in April, the highest since the Great Depression, and many economists expect it will near 20% in May.
First-time applications for unemployment, though still extraordinarily high, have fallen for eight straight weeks, and states are gradually letting stores, restaurants, salons, gyms and other businesses reopen. But other employers are still laying off workers in the face of a deep recession….