New claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 712,000 in the week ending 5 March from 754,000 the week before, the fewest new filings since early November, the U.S. Labor Department reported.
In February, U.S. employers added 379,000 jobs, the most since last October, the Department noted.
Although the trend is positive, weekly unemployment filings had never reached 700,000 until 2020’s economic collapse, even during the Great Recession.
About 4.1 million jobless workers now receive state unemployment benefits; the total number of people receiving all forms of federal and state jobless payments is 20.1 million, according to the Associated Press.
The economy remains 9.6 million jobs smaller than it was in February 2020.
Roughly four in ten American households are still dealing with the damage done by the loss of a job or reduction in income, a recent poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center found; 25 percent of households include someone who has been laid off, and 30 percent of Americans are making do with smaller incomes today than before the pandemic.
TREND FORECAST: The word on The Street remains that once society is fully vaccinated, the economy will bounce back to normal, unemployment numbers will decline and the economy will boom.
“To fully heal the labor market, the public health situation must be under control,” Ann Elizabeth Konkel, economist for Indeed, the online job placement service, said to the AP. “Coronavirus started this mess and continues to cause massive economic damage on a daily basis.″
We disagree. For example, with some 72 percent of its population overweight and 40 percent obese, the public health situation in American was rapidly deteriorating long before the COVID War. In fact, we have been writing about the cost to the nation – physical, emotionally, spiritually – for several years. (See our 11 December 2018 article, “READY TO EXPLODE.”)
Health aside, again, there will be an economic bounce-back of some 6 to 7 percent this year in the United States as a result of the stimulus packages. And retail sales, which were down a bit in February because of the winter storms, will also rebound.
The boom, however, will be only temporary since the damage inflicted by the COVID War has destroyed many sectors of the economy… from restaurants, hospitality, commercial/apartment rental real estate, trade shows, tourism, concerts, entertainment, conventions, etc., which will not snap back regardless of how many people get vaccinated or how much money is injected into the economy.
