Numbers
11/17/2020
709,000
The number of Americans filing new claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 48,000 to 709,000 last week, a sign that the job market might be slowly healing, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment rate stood at 4.6%, a decline of 0.3 percentage point from the previous week’s revised rate. Continuing claims, which track the aggregate total of Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the week ending October 31 decreased by 436,000 to 6.79 million. This shows that more Americans are finding new jobs and no longer receiving jobless aid. Furthermore, for the week ending November 7, 53 states reported 298,154 workers applied for PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance), a program for the self-employed and gig workers, the report shows.
10.8
The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that hiring in the USA is back to pre-pandemic levels, with 10.8 million job openings posted this month — up from 6 million at the low point in May and just 2 percent below what was available in February before the coronavirus hit. Excluding governments at all levels, private sector employers added 906,000 jobs –a pickup from September. Hiring growth was especially strong in construction, retail, including in online retail and a category that includes hotels and restaurants. The number of job openings didn’t really change from the month before, said Nick Bunker, an Economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. However, the economy still faces a huge shortfall –with almost 12 million jobs yet to be recovered, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
90,000
U.S. airways employment will hit the lowest levels in decades by the end of 2020, the results of the pandemic’s devastating impact on the airline industry, CNBC reported. Employment will drop by 90,000 full-time employees by December, including more than 30,000 furloughs at airlines like United and American that began last month and thousands of other workers from Southwest, Delta, and other airlines accepting takeovers. According to the Airlines for America trade group, the industry’s workforce in the fourth quarter will fall to about 370,000 full-time equivalent jobs, from 460,000 in March. Air travel demand has improved from more than five-decade lows hit in April, early in the pandemic but last week U.S. airline passenger numbers were still 65 percent lower than the previous year, Airlines for America reported.
$284
The U.S budget deficit totaled $284 billion in October — more than double the month prior, as revenues declined while spending to deal with the impact of the coronavirus soared, according to the WSJ. The U.S. budget gap rose 111% in October — more than twice the $134.5 shortfall recorded in October 2019 and is a new all-time record for the month. The previous record of $176 billion was set in October 2009, during the financial crisis and recession. Government outlays for the month increased by 37% to $522 billion, while revenue declined 3.2% to $238 billion. Spending on Social Security increased 9%, Department of Health and Human Services (50%), military spending (12%), and Veterans Affairs department spending rose 70%. While, Treasury outlays dropped 7%, due in part to lower costs on the federal debt, which totaled $21 trillion at the end of the month.
0.2%
The Labour Department reported that the U.S consumer price index was unchanged in October. The flat reading in October followed a gain of 0.2% in September — marked the fourth straight month of gains for consumer prices. The economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected a 0.1% increase for the overall consumer price index and a 0.2% rise in the core index. Prices for dining out grew 0.3% last month, a smaller increase than the 0.6-percent rise reported, but grocery prices were up slightly, by 0.1%. Meanwhile, the cost of medical services fell by 0.3%. Consumer prices accelerated after the economy reopened. However, the trend is subdued, and overall price pressures remain contained, said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High-Frequency Economics.
$63.86
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell to $63.86 in September of 2020, a 4.7% decline from August’s $67 billion, according to data from the Commerce Department. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had predicted a $63.6 billion deficit in September. Exports for the month increased by 2.6% to $176.4 billion — the biggest increase came from food and beverages, which saw shipments worth $12.9 billion, the highest level since 2012. While imports edged up 0.5% to $240.22 billion — boosted by sales of passenger cars, capital goods, and travel and transport services, the department reported. Despite the strong month, the deficit for goods and services has climbed $38.5 billion, or 8.6%, to $485.6 billion. Total exports are down 17.4% from 2019, as the pandemic has stunted global growth and disrupted supply chains, the data shows.
40%
According to a recent survey from Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center, about 40 percent of U.S. residents are planning to have a Thanksgiving dinner with of 10 or more people. It shows that 25% of respondents say they won’t practice social distancing and another 33% say they won’t likely require their family and friends to wear face masks, the survey finds. COVID is getting worse by the day, Andrew Cuomo said in a tweet. State leaders and health experts have warned Americans to not gather for holidays as the US records more than 10.5 million cases of the coronavirus as of Sunday and more than 240,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
