Economy

The New York Post reports: The US economy added 661,000 jobs in September as the American labor market’s rebound from the coronavirus pandemic hit yet another snag, new data show. Last month’s growth in non-farm payrolls helped push the unemployment rate down to 7.9 percent but marked a continued slowdown in hiring from August’s addition of about 1.5 million jobs, …

Yahoo Finance reports: Another 837,000 individuals filed new jobless claims last week, for a marginal step down from the upwardly revised 873,000 reported for the prior period. This marked the fifth straight week that new jobless claims come in below 1 million. On a seasonally unadjusted basis, claims also declined, falling by more than 40,000 to 786,942. But six months …

Yahoo Finance reports: Another 870,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, unexpectedly rising slightly from the prior week to reaffirm a slowdown in the U.S. economic recovery. The U.S. Department of Labor released its weekly jobless claims report at 8:30 a.m. ET Thursday. At 870,000, Thursday’s figure represented the fourth consecutive week that new jobless claims came in …

ABC News reports: Some 860,000 Americans lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The latest tally shows that new jobless claims have dipped significantly since peaking at 6.9 million in the last week of March. Still, it shatters the pre-pandemic weekly record set in 1982 of 695,000. Meanwhile, more than 29.7 million …

The Wall Street Journal reports: U.S. debt has reached its highest level compared to the size of the economy since World War II and is projected to exceed it next year, the result of a giant fiscal response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that federal debt held by the public is projected to reach or …

CNBC reports: The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time came in above 1 million for the 22nd time in 23 weeks as the economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the second-consecutive week that new claims was above 1 million. Initial claims were last below 1 …

Yahoo Money reports:  The number of individuals filing new unemployment insurance claims improved to a fresh pandemic-era low last week, falling below the 1 million mark for the first time since March. Thursday’s report ended what had been a previous 20-week streak that new claims totaled more than 1 million, with tens of millions of Americans put out of work …

Sen. Bernie Sanders writes for The Guardian: As a nation, the time is long overdue for us to finally address the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that exists. In my view, we can no longer tolerate the three wealthiest people in America owning more wealth than the bottom 50%, the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom …

The Verge reports: Amazon has had talks with Simon Property Group about converting some of its mall spaces into fulfillment centers. The conversations started before the coronavirus pandemic, and before the latest wave of bankruptcy filings by mall stalwarts like Lord & Taylor, JCPenney, and Nieman Marcus. It’s a bit of an on-the-nose example of how e-commerce is overtaking the …

Bloomberg News reports: Renters across America are wading into unknown territory. With the lapse of the federal moratorium on evictions that expired July 31 and the end of the $600 per week boost to unemployment benefits, a recent survey reveals the breadth of financial uncertainty now plaguing Americans. An estimated 27% of adults in the U.S. missed their rent or …

Yahoo Finance reports: The number of new unemployment insurance claims improved last week to a pandemic-era low but held above 1 million yet again, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to weigh on the pace of recovery in the labor market. Thursday’s report reflected the twentieth straight week that new claims topped 1 million, as the pandemic forced furloughs and layoffs …

NBC News reports: More than 1.43 million people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week, according to new weekly data from the Department of Labor. It’s the second-straight week that the number has risen, and the 19th week in a row that the U.S. has seen more than a million claims. For context, the prior peak was …

CNBC reports: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,800 points on Thursday and was on pace for its worst day since the March sell-off as coronavirus cases increased in some states that are reopening up from lockdowns. Shares that have surged recently on hopes for a smooth reopening of the economy led the declines. The 30-stock Dow traded …

CNBC reports: The pace of unemployment claims declined again last week as the U.S. jobs market continued its plodding recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, Labor Department data showed Thursday. Initial claims totaled 1.54 million, compared with the 1.6 million expected from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and a plunge of 355,000 from the previous week’s total just shy of 1.9 …

The New York Times reports: The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and near zero on Wednesday as the central bank projected a slow economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession. In their first economic projections this year, Fed officials indicated that they expected the unemployment rate to end 2020 at 9.3 percent and remain elevated for years, coming in at …

The Associated Press reports: The U.S. economy entered a recession in February, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record. The economists said employment peaked in February and fell sharply afterward, marking the beginning of the downturn. The economists make up a committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research, a trade group that determines when …

Reuters reports: Billionaire financier George Soros said the European Union could break apart in the wake of the new coronavirus pandemic unless the block issued perpetual bonds to help weak members such as Italy. Soros, 89, said the damage to the euro zone economy from the new coronavirus would last “longer than most people think”, adding that the rapid evolution …

The Hill reports: Stephen Moore, a member of the White House coronavirus economic task force, said he thinks the “worst economic news” has passed and urged Democratic governors and mayors to expedite the reopening of their respective states and cities amid the pandemic. “The problem is we still have New York. And we have California. And we have Michigan and …

CNN reports: How bad is the coronavirus economy? The worst ever, says Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. “We are going to see economic data for the second quarter that is worse than any data we have seen for the economy,” Powell said. “There are direct consequences of the disease and measures we are taking to protect ourselves from it.” The recovery …

USA Today reports: About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks, a grim marker revealing how badly the coronavirus pandemic has crippled the U.S. economy. Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time …