Jobless [adjective]

The number of new jobless claims has come down since the earliest days of the pandemic but remains at an extremely high level week in and week out.

While the $300 payments are down from $600 per week provided by the CARES Act through July 2020, it’s still much needed aid to help jobless Americans make ends meet.

Those aid package have funneled hundreds of billions to small businesses, jobless Americans and others hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

If the BLS were to include those 4 million jobless Americans who have yet to return to the workforce in its unemployment rate, the “real” jobless rate would sit at 9% for November.

That’s down from the $600 weekly payment that the CARES Act sent jobless Americans through late July.

Even with the drop in initial jobless claims, the level remains almost quadruple what it was before the pandemic, and the four-week average edged up to a two-month high.

The bill also provides $300 weekly enhanced unemployment payments to most jobless Americans.

The extension of pandemic unemployment provisions is welcome news to the more than 19 million Americans currently receiving jobless benefits.

Late-breaking decisions would limit the $300 per week bonus jobless benefits — one half the supplemental federal unemployment benefit provided under the CARES Act in March — to 10 weeks instead of 16 weeks as before.

The emerging agreement on virus aid would deliver more than $300 billion in aid to businesses as well as the extra $300-per-week for the jobless and renewal of state benefits that would otherwise expire right after Christmas.