Last week, 833,000 people filed for state unemployment benefits under the new seasonally adjusted guidelines. An additional 759,000 people filed claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, bringing the total to more than 1.6 million new unemployment claims last week.
In response, Protect Our Care’s Coronavirus War Room Director Zac Petkanas released the following statement:
“As Donald Trump continues to lie to the American people about his failure to control the virus and prevent economic disaster, the struggles of millions of families worrying about putting food on the table and staving off eviction is far too real.
“Today’s unemployment numbers only reinforce what we’ve known for the past six months: Trump’s inability to get a handle on the virus is directly responsible for our ongoing economic collapse even as other nations get back on track.
“Instead of taking decisive action, Trump made the crisis at every turn by downplaying the virus, undermining experts, and elevating junk science.
“His delusions won’t grow our economy or help defeat this pandemic – it’ll only cause more pain and suffering for every American.”
What people are saying about today’s numbers:
[Twitter, @byHeatherLong, 9/03/20]
[Twitter, @byHeatherLong, 9/03/20]
[Twitter, @morningmoneyben, 9/03/20]