Another 3 million Americans file for unemployment benefits - CNN - 0 views
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Millions of Americans are relying on unemployment benefits for their livelihoods after losing their jobs to the coronavirus crisis.
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Another 3 million people filed initial unemployment claims last week on a seasonally adjusted basis,
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It was the eighth week in a row that the number for initial claims decreased after peaking at 6.9 million in the final week of March
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But now that initial claims have been falling for two months straight, economists are beginning to shift their focus to continuing jobless claims, which count people who are filing multiple weeks in a row. That number stood at 22.8, up slightly from the prior week.
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Federal and state outlays totaled just under $102 billion, as of May 12, up from $12.7 billion at the beginning of March.
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In April, the federal government paid out nearly $27 billion in unemployment benefits as the money from Congress' historic enhancement to the program started to flow, Treasury Department data shows.
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Lawmakers in late March approved a $600 boost to weekly payments for up to four months and added 13 weeks to benefits, both compliments of the federal government
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States, meanwhile, delivered just over $21 billion in benefits in April, up from about $4 billion the month before.
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As more Americans join and remain on the unemployment insurance program, spending will continue to skyrocket. The outlays to date show that states have struggled to handle the surge in claims and to implement the federal provisions, said Ernie Tedeschi, an economist at Evercore ISI and former Treasury official.