Numbers
07/29/2020
1.4M
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased 1.4 million in the week ended July 18th — an increase of 109,000 from the previous week, placing the unemployment rate at 11.1%, according to data released by Labor Department. The latest data bringing the total number of claims to more than 52 million since coronavirus-related lockdowns began in March and marking the 18th straight week in which initial claims totaled more than 1 million, the department reported. Nearly 16.2 million people are receiving unemployment benefits — a decline of 1.1 million from the prior week, but the figure is still roughly 10 times what it was before the pandemic, the U.S government said. However, the rise in jobless claims confirms that the economy is still scrambling to recover from the pandemic-induced shock.
23%
According to Homebase data, the employment recovery is going backward in some of the states hardest hit by the virus. The data showed that six states including Florida, Arizona, and Texas affected by coronavirus are now seeing a rapid decrease in employment for small businesses –a decline by at least 5% from early June to mid-July. The data shows that small and medium-sized businesses were being impacted the most, as employees going to work down more than 23% compared with its pre-crisis levels for the seven-day period ending July 19. Meanwhile, hiring levels at small businesses remain below pre-COVID levels and the number of workers applying for jobs has fallen to levels below what we saw before the COVID-19 pandemic as well.
47%
The number of U.S employees working solely from home has at least doubled and possibly tripled, since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that in the future 82% of company leaders plan to allow employees to work remotely at least some of the time, while 47% plan to allow employees to do so permanently. For some organizations, 70% of survey respondents said flex time will be the new norm as they will grant employees flex days, while 42% will provide flex hours. Elisabeth Joyce, VP, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice said the pandemic brought about a huge experiment in widespread remote working as organization plan and execute reopening of their workplaces, they are evaluating more permanent remote working as a way to meet employee expectations and to build more resilient business operations.
50
Social networking giant Facebook announced that it’s expanding its Messenger Rooms and Facebook Live features to allow users to live broadcast video calls with up to 50 participants via a link. The company said this will make it possible for large audiences to tune in and watch group video calls in real-time. Facebook Rooms via Live will still come with controls for the call host, users need a link to join, and the call host can still remove people if needed. Creators can add or remove participants, and they can lock calls to prevent any so-called zoombombing pranks, the company added. The new feature is going to launch Thursday. When FB launched, shares of rival video-calling product Zoom fell as much as 5%, CNBC reported.
21%
According to the National Association of Realtors, existing homes sales surge nearly 21% in June in contrast with May — the highest monthly gain since the Realtors started monitoring the data in 1968. The increase came after sharp declines over the earlier three months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall sales had been nonetheless 11.3% decrease yearly after 5.3 million sold a year ago. The report shows the median price of an existing home sold in June rose 3.5% annually to $295,300 — the increase marked 100 straight months of year-over-year gains. Regionally, in the Northeast existing sales rose 4.3% and were 11.1% higher in the Midwest. In the South, existing-home sales jumped 26% monthly, and in the West, sales rose 31.9%.
13%
Microsoft’s overall revenue jumped 13% year-over-year to $38 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended on June 30, according to a statement. Revenue went up 15% in the prior quarter, which noticed much less impression from the pandemic. Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates with a total of $38 billion instead of the projected $36.54 billion by financial analysts. In the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2020, the Microsoft revenue in productivity and business processes was $11.8 billion and increased 6%, cloud revenue was $13.4 billion, and increased 17%, personal computing revenue was $12.9 billion, and increased 14%. The company saw strong revenue growth mostly driven by a surge in work-from-home scenarios and education-related needs.
$5B
The Trump administration is allocating an additional $5 billion COVID-19 relief funds to Medicare-certified long-term care facilities and state veteran nursing homes to develop infection controls in response to COVID-19. Trump announced the funding, part of the Provider Relief Fund authorized by the CARES Act will go towards enhancing COVID-19 infection control, additional technical assistance, and support, and weekly data reporting to states, according to CMS. More than 600 point-of-care testing devices will be shipped to nursing homes in hotspots this week, CMS said.
1.35M
The book “Too Much and Never Enough” by Mary Trump has sold more than 1.35 million on the first week of sales in the United States, its publisher Simon & Schuster said Thursday. The sales figure, which includes all formats, puts the book on track to being one of the most popular books of the year. The book discusses the Trump family as a whole, with Mary Trump writing about how the president’s childhood and parents led him to be the divisive leader he is today. In addition to being the runaway bestseller in the US, the book is also No 1 in Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, and No 2 in Australia, according to S&S. This book has likely done better in hardcover sales than of Trump’s 1987 book “Art of the Deal,” which reportedly sold 1.1 million copies as of 2016.
$2.1B
American Airlines announced a net loss of $2.1 billion in second-quarter as the coronavirus brought air travel and the global economy to a near-standstill. The company’s operating revenue dropped more than 86% in the quarter to $1.6 billion — down from nearly $12 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Doug Parker, the company’s CEO says this was one of the most challenging quarters in American’s history, while much Covid-19 and the resulting shutdown of the US economy have caused severe disruptions to the global demand for air travel, Parker said in a news statement. For the third quarter, American expects capacity to be 60% lower than it was during the same period in 2019.
1.1M
New York City principals are staring at an impossible equation. Governors are promising to put children back in classrooms in a matter of weeks, but school principals are worried about how they can keep students and teachers safe this fall given concerns about the coronavirus, and their union says the Education Department hasn’t given them enough guidance for reopening. The city released a preliminary reopening plan with in-person classes for one to three days a week and remotely the other days for most of the city’s 1.1 million students. The NYC principal’s union has sent the Department of Education a list of 141 questions it says the city must answer before reopening schools.
