847,000 People File for Unemployment Benefits in Joe Biden's First Week as President | The State
The unemployment crisis in the United States is one of the big problems Joe Biden is facing, and jobless claims in his first week as president show that it will not be easy to bring the economy back to normal.
Others 847,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, according to the Department of Labor. Although it seems like a large number, this is actually a decrease, since the week before that there were 914,000 people who requested these benefits.
Besides that, 426,856 workers applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for the first time. This is a program designed to help those who are not eligible for regular state benefits.
Adding this up, first-time claims for unemployment benefits were 1.3 million.
On the other hand, ongoing jobless claims – which count workers who have claimed benefits for at least two weeks in a row – fell slightly to 4.8 million, according to CNN.
To make a comparison, A year ago, before the pandemic, jobless claims were around 200,000 per week. So the United States has a long way to go to get back to that level.
To accomplish this, Biden signed several executive orders aimed at creating new jobs, with a focus on creating jobs in the green energy industry, which will help the country prepare for the economy of the future.
Further, The White House has also proposed an increase in weekly emergency unemployment benefitsThis as part of the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus bill aimed at reviving the economy.
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