The U.S. on Thursday said it had registered 5.245 million new unemployment claims, according to weekly data released on Thursday by the Department of Labour, just slightly above expectations.
The figure comes on top of 16 million claims already processed since mid-March amid the new Coronavirus pandemic and the government’s decision to shut down the economy to slow contagion.
The data showed a somewhat slowing pace of job losses.
It comes in addition to an effective depletion of the funds available for the Paycheck Protection Programme, a major part of a massive stimulus bill passed in March.
The Federal Government programme offers loans to small and medium sized businesses that will be forgiven if the sums are used for keeping workers on payroll.
A stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress means the 350-billion-dollar fund is not being replenished.
