Another 885,000 Americans Filed for Unemployment Benefits Last Week.
The figures released by the Labor Department
were not only an increase from the prior week.
but they were also higher than economists' expectations of 800,000 claims.
In the past five weeks, this is the fourth time that first-time jobless claims increased compared to the prior week.
Continuing claims fell to 5.5 million.
As of Nov. 28, over 20.6 million Americans have filed for
some sort of government unemployment benefits.
Out of those people, over 14 million applied for help
via the government's pandemic assistance programs,
which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Congress has yet to strike a deal
on a new coronavirus relief bill