Another 840,000 workers filed for initial unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. That was down from 849,000 in the previous week , but more than economists had expected. But the improvement in first-time benefit claims is small to say the least, as they remain about four-times higher as they were before the pandemic. Meanwhile, California has halted the processing of its initial claims for a second-straight week to work on its benefit backlog and fraud prevention. Thursday's report includes an estimate based on previous claims for the state.

Source: CNN October 08, 2020 12:36 UTC