Iran Press/America: The number of Americans seeking jobless aid is still at historically high levels but has subsided since an initial surge in layoffs drove claims up to a weekly peak of nearly 7 million at the end of March.
“The numbers are very high, but they're stepping down every week, and I see no reason why that decline in filings wouldn't continue," Keith Hall, chief economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under former President George W. Bush said ahead of Thursday's report. “Employers are likely poised to bring people back, but right now we're in a holding pattern," The Wall Street Journal reported.
States including Utah, Texas, and Indiana have lifted some business restrictions enacted earlier in the crisis to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Governors are seeking to increase testing capacity and build contact-tracing teams as they move toward easing their lockdowns.
Meanwhile, the ranks of workers drawing on unemployment insurance continue to grow as states process applications.
Millions of Americans have been hit with a double blow during the coronavirus pandemic because they're out of work and without health insurance if they get sick. In this country, most working-age people depend on their job to have health insurance, meaning that they have insurance when they are working.
More than 1,430,000 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 85,000 have died, according to the latest figures.
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