courtneyk/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, IVAN PEREIRA and MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Some 778,000 workers lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance last week, the Department of Labor said Wednesday.
This is an uptick of 30,000 compared to the previous week, and the second consecutive week that the weekly tally has risen after it was on the decline for months.
The DOL also said Wednesday that more than 20 million people were still receiving some form of unemployment benefits through all programs as of the week ending Nov. 7. For the comparable week in 2019, that figure was 1.5 million.
The latest economic data from the DOL comes as new virus cases surge across the country, and highlight a slow economic recovery. It also comes, however, as Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new milestone of trading above 30,000 on Tuesday — a further indication that the stock market remains divorced from the economic pain millions of Americans still face as the coronavirus crisis rages on.
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