courtneyk/iStockBy ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Some 885,000 workers filed for unemployment insurance last week, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday, as the pandemic continues to upend the labor market.
This is an uptick of 23,000 from the previous week’s figure.
More than 20 million people are still receiving some form of unemployment benefits through all programs as of the week ending Nov. 28, the DOL said. For the comparable week in 2019, that figure was 1.8 million.
The latest economic data comes as COVID-19 cases continue to climb across the country. The United States on Wednesday hit a record high of 247,403 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 3,656 additional deaths from the disease.
The latest tally of weekly unemployment claims also comes as lawmakers have struggled to reach a deal on new relief. On Wednesday, after months of stalled negotiations, a source told ABC News that congressional leaders were close to a reaching a deal that could include enhanced federal unemployment benefits.
The national unemployment rate in the U.S. was 6.7% last month, according to the DOL’s most-recent jobs report. In February, prior to the pandemic, the unemployment rate was 3.5%.
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