Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as BoE warns one million jobs will be lost by Christmas
- Latest: Bank says unemployment to double, to 2.5m
- One million people expected to lose their job this year
- Introduction: Bank sees ‘material rise’ in joblessness
- Downturn less severe than feared…but recovery expected to take longer
- Bank: We’re looking at negative interest rates
Economists are encouraged that the number of Americans seeking jobless benefit had fallen.
But they’re also concerned that more than a million people filed fresh jobless claims – showing that some US firms are still cutting jobs as the pandemic rages.
Jobless claims down a bit and below expectations at 1.19 vs 1.43 mil with continuing claims down also at 16.1 from 16.9. Still very high numbers but slight improvement.
BREAKING: 1.2 million filed NEW unemployment claims last week, a decline of 249,000 from the prior week.
It’s the lowest level since the crisis started but the 20th week of over a million jobless claims.
Bottom line: A lot of layoffs are becoming permanent at this point.
US initial jobless claims totaled 1.19 million last week, the lowest level since the #Covid19 outbreak. pic.twitter.com/2VY1m8J9Q8
Newsflash: The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefit has dropped sharply.
US initial jobless claims dropped to 1.186m in the week to 1st August, much lower than the 1.4m which economists expected.
US JOBLESS CLAIMS FELL TO 1,186,000 AUG 1 WEEK (CONSENSUS 1,415,000) FROM 1,435,000 PRIOR WEEK (PREVIOUS 1,434,000)
US CONTINUED CLAIMS FELL TO 16.107 MLN JUL 25 WEEK (CON. 16.720 MLN) FROM 16.951 MLN PRIOR WEEK (PREV 17.018 MLN) pic.twitter.com/t7HNyaKktI