Weekly unemployment claims are decreasing, but there is still a long way to go to reach economic recovery. There are still 757,000 unemployment claims as well as 345,000 claims for the federal jobless program; created to provide aid to certain groups of people during the pandemic. With no increase in current federal aid to those hit hard by the pandemic, there may be a decrease in consumer confidence. Many people have been out of work for 7+ months which exceeds the 6 month limitation on unemployed insurance programs. Thankfully, there are still some programs in place by the government to provide excess aid due to the continuing pandemic. While numbers of unemployment claims are decreasing, it may not be due to so many returning to jobs but that people are no longer fitting the criteria and moving into a longer term unemployment status. The current job finding rate is low and continuing to decrease, causing further permanent unemployment problems. The continuation of worsening opportunities is becoming very discouraging to those looking for work. With the presidential election looming, many are taking the experiences of the last few months into account and seem to be favoring Joe Biden. This could, however, be related to the fact that most of the people who lost their jobs are considered to be minorities and were already favoring Biden. Many factors are currently at work that will affect the election and, in turn, the future economy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/business/economy/unemployment-claims.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs we discussed in class, I believe around the beginning of the semester, when the economy is not doing well, the party in power tends to switch. However, I think there is a lot of misleading information like the fact that unemployment is going down, but there are people leaving the work force causing the unemployment rate to go down. I think the boasting of a strong economy, record low unemployment, etc. is believed by a lot of people and won't swing their political opinion.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the economy and the unemployment rate will make a drastic recovery after the election. The Covid-19 vaccine is due and the more time passes the more people are eager to having society as it once was.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see if there is any correlation between industry and whether or not workers returned to work after COVID-19 layoffs. Perhaps these workers worked in industries that were already declining or struggling before the pandemic, and their jobs are simply not going to come back. If this is the case, federal stimulus (if another round ever comes) ought to include funding for job retraining.
ReplyDeleteThe election would have a huge impact on the unemployment levels. Trump's administration already had a huge increase in unemployment due to the pandemic. However, Biden tends to impose new policies and work towards implementing green industries that would not only help create many more jobs for people but it would also end up cleaning the environment of harmful substances that means getting rid of pollution.
ReplyDelete