#803,000 filed amid COVID-19 surge

American workers filed 803,000 applications for jobless benefits last week, an unexpected decrease as the coronavirus kept the labor market under pressure, the feds said Wednesday.

The latest batch of initial jobless claims brought the total reported during the COVID-19 pandemic to about 72.2 million — equivalent to roughly 45 percent of the nation’s workforce.

Jobless filings dropped from the prior week’s revised total of 892,000 despite a deadly surge in infections sparking a new wave of lockdown measures in some states, forcing businesses to shut their doors or scale back operations. Economists were expecting 880,000 claims for last week, according to Wrightson ICAP.

“We expect claims to climb higher in the coming weeks as service-sector activity continues to slump sharply,” said Bloomberg economist Eliza Winger.

New filings have remained above the pre-pandemic record of 695,000 for 10 straight months despite falling sharply from their late March peak of about 6.8 million.

In all, workers claimed nearly 20.4 million weeks’ worth of state and federal unemployment aid in the week ending Dec. 5, down slightly from 20.6 million the prior week, the US Department of Labor data show.

That includes about 14 million weeks of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits, two key programs created by the CARES Act that are due to expire at the end of this week.

Congress has passed a stimulus bill that would extend the programs and also boost regular unemployment payments by $300 a week — but President Trump called for changes to the bill on Tuesday, putting millions of workers relying on the federal aid in limbo.

“Unemployment benefits have been perhaps the most important economic cushion during the pandemic, and Congress would be wise to build on their success this week and ensure that robust benefits are available to workers until the economy truly recovers,” said Andrew Stettner, an unemployment insurance expert and senior fellow at the Century Foundation think tank.