Numbers

07/01/2020

1.5M

Nearly 1.5 million U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week ending June 20, the 14th straight week that jobless claims have topped 1 million –a troubling sign that the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic may be slowing, the Department of Labor said on Thursday. It’s a drop of about 60,000 from the previous week. The report also revised last week’s total up by 32,000 claims. An additional 728,000 filed for benefits from Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a new federal program for self-employed and gig workers, raising the total number of first-time claims to 2.2 million. Click here to know more.

8.2%

According to data released by Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday, US consumer spending spiked a record 8.2% in May, partly erasing plunges seen in the previous two months amid coronavirus lockdowns. The rebound, which was more than double the prior all-time high on records dating from 1959, comes after spending plummeted March (6.6%) and in April (12.6%). The report shows that personal consumption expenditures increased $994.5 billion and disposable personal income decreased $911.1 billion. The consumer spending figure in May showed a record increase in retail spending — this indicates that the U.S. economy is on way to rebound from the economic shutdown.

22,000

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said this week that the city needs to make budget cuts and may have to lay off or furlough up to 22,000 city employees to save $1 billion in agency spending for the fiscal year 2021. He said that NYC is now facing a $9 billion projected loss of tax revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic, which is an increase from the initial estimate of losing $7.4 billion in revenue. He said that staffing reductions would happen in the fall and be across every city agency, including his own office. The city needs to find saving, and the blunt truth is that we’re running out of options, the Mayor said.

$100B

Small business owners who suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown have until June 30 to apply for PPP loan, a rescue fund established by Congress with the passage of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. Most businesses are only eligible for loans if they employ less than 500 workers– can receive loans of up to $10 million. According to the Small Business Administration, nearly 75 percent of the loans distributed through the $610 billion program are worth more than $150,000. As of Friday, more than 4.7 million loans worth about $517.9 billion had been distributed through the program and there’s more than $100B left in the PPP fund.

10M

The coronavirus pandemic has topped two milestones — more than 500,000 deaths and 10 million confirmed cases globally, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Tedros Adhanom director-general of WHO said that pandemic was speeding up — rather than slowing down and the world would need even greater stores of resilience, patience, and generosity in the months ahead. The pandemic hit the United States particularly hard with more than 128,000 deaths and nearly 2.6 million cases — about one-quarter of the world totals. Click here to see the confirmed cases by country/region and sovereignty.

9.7%

The National Association of Realtors said that US existing home sales plunge 9.7% in May compared with April as the coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on the U.S. real estate market. The figure marked a three-month decline in sales since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. According to NAR data, existing-home sales fell the most month-over-month in the Northeast (13%) and in the West (11.1%). The median existing-home price last month was $284,600, up 2.3% from May 2019, as prices increased in every region, economists say. Total housing inventory increased by 6.2% from April in the same month and down 18.8% year-on-year.

10

The Florida Department of Health has confirmed 10 additional cases of West Nile virus reported in Miami-Dade County. Health officials issued the mosquito-borne illness alert Thursday as the latest cases raised the total number of infections to 14 so far this year. Most people infected with the virus do not feel symptoms. About 1 in 5 people develop symptoms like fever, headache, pain, and fatigue — usually appears between 2 to 14 days after the bite of an infected mosquito. People with mild symptoms typically recover in about a week and there are no vaccines to prevent or medications to treat the virus in people, says health officers.

600

SpaceX set to launch its tenth batch of Starlink satellites on Friday to boost the number of communications satellites in orbit to almost 600. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying 57 Starlink spacecraft had been scheduled to take off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This mission will see SpaceX’s Starlink constellation expand to nearly 600 satellites, edging the company closer to launching broadband services for businesses and homes, according to SpaceX.

20

A Tennessee turned dog named August that recently 20 years old is believed to be the oldest living golden retriever in the world — becoming the first on record to surpass the milestone age. She lives with her owners Jennifer and Steve Hetterscheidt, who celebrated her record-setting birthday with a cake and some quality time with her golden retriever siblings, Sherman, Belle, and Bruce. The golden retriever has an average lifespan of 10 to 12 years. Jennifer said despite her age, Augie is still surprisingly healthy and can move around well and enjoys daily walks around the yard.