US Initial Jobless Claims for First Week of July at 1.31 Million... 110,000 Less Than Previous Week

14 Consecutive Weeks of Decline... Too Early to Relax Amid Signs of COVID-19 Resurgence

(Washington AFP=Yonhap News) U.S. President Donald Trump is sitting with his arms crossed at the White House East Room during a meeting on reopening schools on the 7th (local time).

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] The number of new unemployment insurance claims in the United States for the first week of July decreased by more than 110,000 compared to the previous week, marking the 14th consecutive week of decline.

On the 9th (local time), the U.S. Department of Labor announced that new unemployment insurance claims for the week of June 28 to July 4 totaled 1,314,000. This was 113,000 fewer than the previous week and about 61,000 less than the forecasted 1,375,000 claims.

Compared to the peak of nearly 7 million claims during the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number has significantly decreased, but it is still expected to be difficult to return to pre-COVID-19 levels in a short period.

Before COVID-19 began to have a full impact, in early March, new unemployment claims were around 210,000. However, in the third week of the same month, claims surged to 3.3 million. The following week, they peaked at 6.87 million. Since then, the number has gradually declined to the 1.3 million range. Nevertheless, recording over 1 million claims for 16 consecutive weeks is the highest level since the U.S. Department of Labor began tracking this data in 1967.

There remains a possibility that claims could rise again. Recently, as economic activities have resumed, COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly, and some states have shown signs of reimposing lockdowns, such as requiring a 14-day mandatory quarantine for people coming from other states.