Unemployment claims started to fall again, with 1, 16 Million Americans who registered as unemployed between 20 July and 1 st August, according to figures released Thursday by the Department of Labor.
While new claims have been falling every week since the historic record of 6.6 million new unemployed at the end of March, they had climbed again for two weeks at the end of July.
Indeed, a large part of the country has seen the number of COVID cases - 16 leap in many states, like California, Texas, and Florida. Restaurants that had reopened had to close their doors, as well as businesses.
This significantly slowed job creation in the private sector in July: 158 000 jobs were created, against 2.4 million the previous month, according to the survey by the business services firm ADP, released Wednesday.
These "repeated [...] closures remain a threat to the labor market, which is already weak. The possibility of layoffs that could become permanent is high, "emphasizes Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics.
"Big numbers"
The unemployment rate for July will be announced this Friday. Analysts expect a drop, to 10, 5% against 11, 1% in June.
Donald Trump announced Wednesday on Fox News that this publication would contain "big numbers", without specifying what that could mean.
Almost 11 millions of Americans are currently receiving compensation unemployment paid by each state, the amount and duration of which vary.
But we must also count those who lost their income with the crisis but cannot reach unemployment: self-employed workers, benefit recipients at the end of their rights, or even those whose health is more fragile and who fear '' catching COVID - 19, for example.
Also in total, 32 millions of people received aid in mid-July, against 1.7 million at the same time last year, according to data also released Thursday.
The United States, by far the country most affected by the virus, is struggling to contain the pandemic, which has made more than 43 000 dead .