‘Twas days before Christmas and all through the land, 803,000 Americans found out they were canned. They rushed to the unemployment office to file a claim, joining 20.4 million others, the Trumpvirus to blame.
Jobless claims rose less than expected last week as employers weighed a wintertime spike in Covid-19 cases against expected relief from a pending $900 billion stimulus package, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
The number of first-time unemployment-benefits filers decelerated to 803,000 in the week ended Dec. 19. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected initial claims to rise to 888,000.
Initial claims for the previous week were revised higher by 7,000 to 892,000, the highest print since early September.
In all, 20.4 million Americans were receiving some kind of unemployment benefits through Dec. 5, the report said.
