Instead, the initial claims and new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the program available to gig and self-employed workers, both went up. About 543,000 new claims were filed for PUA for the week that ended on Aug. 15, up from 488,000 the week before. However, last week, postings took a turn for the worse. “Businesses can only ride out this crisis for so long.”More than 28 million people were receiving some form of unemployment benefits as of Aug. 1, the most recent week for that statistic, about equal to the previous week. ADADThe extra $600 in unemployment benefits that many workers credit with keeping them afloat expired at the end of July.

Source: Washington Post August 20, 2020 12:44 UTC