Weekly jobless claims dip slightly to 787,000

New weekly claims for unemployment insurance totaled 787,000 in the final week of 2020, moving little from the previous week but remaining well above the pre-pandemic record high, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.

In the week ending Jan. 2, weekly jobless claims dropped by 3,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 790,000, which was initially reported at 787,000 claims. Another 161,000 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program created to extend jobless benefits to gig workers, contractors and others who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment insurance.

The new batch of jobless claims is yet another warning that the initial recovery from the coronavirus recession has continued to slow under the weight of record-breaking COVID-19 deaths and months of squabbling over further economic relief. Weekly jobless claims since the end of last March have remained well above the 690,000 pre-coronavirus claims record set in 1982. 

President Trump signed a bipartisan $900 billion coronavirus response and stimulus bill in the middle of last week that included extensions of expanded unemployment insurance programs, a second batch of direct relief payments and another round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses.

Economists warned for months before the package reached Trump’s desk that the U.S. economy desperately needed more support for the millions of families who have yet to recover jobs lost to the pandemic and are facing homelessness and hunger.

The Labor Department will release the December jobs report Friday.

Analysts expect the U.S. to have added roughly 70,000 to 100,000 jobs, a paltry number that pales in comparison to the roughly 10 million jobs yet to be regained from the onset of the pandemic.