Illinois sees jobless spike as unemployment rate drops to 6.9 percent
State led the nation in rise in new claims, still above pre-COVID record
The late, lamented Blackbird restaurant in Chicago, one of the casualties of the coronavirus pandemic. (Facebook)
By Ted Cox
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped below 7 percent in figures released Friday, but new weekly claims for benefits remained well above the pre-COVID record, and Illinois led the nation in the increase in new claims.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly report Friday finding that the national unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent, as nonfarm payrolls added an estimated 638,000 jobs in October.
“These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it,” the bureau stated in a news release. “In October, notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction.” But it added ominously that “employment in government declined,” as state and local governments across the nation made cuts to address lost tax revenue in the pandemic in the absence of an additional federal relief package.
That came a day after the U.S. Labor Department released its weekly report on new jobless claims stating for the second straight week that 751,000 idled workers had filed for benefits. The department could claim that as a decline, as it revised up the previous week’s figure by 7,000, but that still meant that — eight months after the pandemic gripped the U.S. economy — new claims remained stubbornly above the pre-COVID one-week record of 695,000 set during the 1982 recession.
And Illinois suffered worst, with 76,000 new claims registered last week, a leap of 23,000 from 53,000 reported the week before, the most in the nation. The department clarified that “advance claims are not directly comparable to claims reported in prior weeks. Advance claims are reported by the state liable for paying the unemployment compensation, whereas previous weeks reported claims reflect claimants by state of residence.” But only California reported more new claims last week, 152,000, holding steady from the week before.
Illinois claims for expanded federal benefits for independent contractors, freelancers, and so-called gig workers under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program rose only slightly to 9,300 from 8,700 the week before.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national unemployment dropped a full percentage point from 7.9 percent in September, “and the number of unemployed persons fell by 1.5 million to 11.1 million. Both measures have declined for six consecutive months but are nearly twice their February levels (3.5 percent and 5.8 million, respectively).”
The bureau added: “Unemployment rates declined among all major worker groups in October. The rate was 6.7 percent for adult men, 6.5 percent for adult women, 13.9 percent for teenagers, 6 percent for Whites, 10.8 percent for Blacks, 7.6 percent for Asians, and 8.8 percent for Hispanics.”
That masked, however, that “the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 1.2 million to 3.6 million, accounting for 32.5 percent of the total unemployed.”
On Thursday, the Labor Department set the total number of idled workers receiving jobless benefits of any kid at 21.5 million, down 1.2 million from the previous week, but still multiple times the 1.4 million on unemployment insurance a year ago.