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Jan. 20, 2021, 5:49 p.m. ET

U.S. Jobless Claims Pass 40 Million: Live Business Updates

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Many of the relief programs introduced at the beginning of the pandemic may soon expire.

Americans are scared about what will happen if pandemic relief is not renewed.

The multitrillion-dollar patchwork of federal and state relief programs has not kept bills from piling up or prevented long lines at food banks. But it has mitigated the damage. Now the expiration of those programs represents a cliff that many Americans and the economy are hurtling toward.

The $1,200 checks are long gone, at least for those who needed them most, with little imminent prospect for a second round. The lending program that helped millions of small businesses keep workers on the payroll will wind down if Congress does not extend it. Eviction moratoriums that are keeping people in their homes are expiring in many cities.

And the $600 per week in extra unemployment benefits that have allowed tens of millions of laid-off workers to pay rent and buy groceries will expire at the end of July.

President Trump and other Republicans have played down the need for more spending, saying the solution is for states to reopen businesses and allow companies to bring people back to work. So despite pleas from economists across the political spectrum — including Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair — any federal action is likely to be limited.

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Julie Glasser, a single mother of two, relies on the extra unemployment money. “I definitely would not be able to survive right now on the payment that the state unemployment is making.”Credit...Mason Trinca for The New York Times

To some Republican lawmakers, extra unemployment benefits and other assistance made sense when businesses were shut down and the government was discouraging people from leaving home. But as the economy reopens, they say, the benefits could impede the recovery by providing an incentive not to return to work.

Many economists feel those fears are overblown. Generous benefits might be a deterrent to work in normal times, they argue, but these are hardly normal times. Even the most optimistic forecasters expect the unemployment rate to be well above 10 percent when the extra benefits expire, meaning there will be far more jobless workers than available jobs.

Trump signs order aimed at social networks as Twitter doubles down on labeling tweets.

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to curtail the legal protections that shield social media companies from liability for the content posted on their platforms.

The move came just hours after Twitter added new fact-checking labels to hundreds of tweets, Kate Conger and Mike Isaac reported, escalating the social media network’s confrontation with Mr. Trump.

Twitter on Tuesday had appended fact-checking labels for the first time to two of Mr. Trump’s tweets about mail-in ballots, rebutting their accuracy. In response, Mr. Trump accused his favorite social media network of stifling speech and declared that he would put a stop to the interference.

White House officials drafted an executive order that would make it easier for federal regulators to argue that companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter are suppressing free speech when they move to suspend users or delete posts.

“They’ve had unchecked power to censure, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences,” Mr. Trump said as he signed the order on Thursday.

American and Delta offer buyouts as airlines prepare for a long recovery.

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Delta Air Lines planes in Birmingham, Ala., in March.Credit...Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are offering buyouts to employees as they prepare for a rebound in demand for air travel that most industry expect will take years to materialize.

“Delta will have to be a smaller airline as we adjust to reduced demand and the need for distancing and safety during travel,” Delta’s chief executive, Ed Bastian, told employees in a memo on Wednesday. “A smaller Delta unfortunately means fewer people will be required.”

Delta is offering two programs — an early retirement option and a general buyout package — to most employees except for pilots, whose union is still in talks with management, Mr. Bastian said. The email did not say how much of its work force the airline was seeking to pare.

The American program, also announced on Wednesday, applies to management and support staff, which the airline hopes to cut by about 30 percent, or about 5,000 workers.

Going into the crisis, American had 130,000 employees and Delta had 90,000; about 40,000 workers at each have taken voluntary leave or early retirement. Most airline jobs are protected into the fall as a condition of the CARES Act, which provided $50 billion to passenger airlines, half of it earmarked to pay employees through September.

Wall Street’s rally fades after President Trump announces China news conference.

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The New York Stock Exchange. Investors on Thursday were parsing the rising tensions between the United States and China and another bleak report on the U.S. labor market.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

An early rally in the stock market Thursday faded late in the day after President Trump said he would hold a news conference about China amid rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The S&P 500 turned negative after earlier rising as much as 1 percent. Before the reversal, stocks had been set for a third day of gains this week, a rally that reflected optimism about prospects for an economic rebound.

Mr. Trump’s announcement of a Friday news conference came as the United States intensified pressure on China over Hong Kong. China’s legislature on Thursday approved a plan that would broaden many of the mainland’s security practices to the semiautonomous city. The Trump administration signaled Wednesday that it was likely to end some or all of the U.S. government’s special trade and economic relations with Hong Kong because of the move.

Tension between Washington and Beijing, which are currently negotiating a trade deal, has been one of the few factors that has managed to deter bullish investors who have looked past the coronavirus pandemic’s immense human and economic toll, and instead have focused on signs of a recovery as they bid stocks higher.

Earlier Thursday, investors were undeterred by the U.S. Labor Department’s weekly report on unemployment claims, which showed that the surge of layoffs, though lessening, had not abated. More than 2 million U.S. workers filed jobless claims last week, bringing the tally since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic took hold, to over 40 million.

Nordstrom sales dropped 40 percent in the first quarter.

Nordstrom, the top-performing department store in the United States, said on Thursday that its net sales fell 40 percent to $2 billion in the first quarter, and that it posted a net loss of $521 million. The retailer closed stores on March 17 and started reopening in early May. It said it now has about 40 percent of its locations open.

Nordstrom has been working to preserve cash and said this month that it planned to permanently close 16 of its 116 full-line stores and its three Jeffrey boutiques, and to conduct a corporate restructuring that would result in savings of $150 million. On Thursday, it said it ended the quarter with about $1.4 billion in cash.The Seattle-based company operates nearly 250 off-price Nordstrom Rack stores, which compete with chains like with T.J. Maxx.

The company said that digital sales accounted for more than half of its total net sales during the quarter. Last year, online sales made up about one-third of the company’s business. Nordstrom said it plans to hold its annual “Anniversary Sale” in August rather than July.

People are watching more TV, but commercials are suffering.

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A recent digital-only commercial for Walmart, shot by a small crew, featured a company employee reciting inspirational verse.Credit...Walmart

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the TV networks were expecting a strong 2020. The presidential election and Tokyo Olympics would keep people watching, and companies would spend more than usual on commercial time.

But with the Summer Games postponed and campaign rallies on lockdown, television advertising revenue is likely to drop 12 percent this year, according to a projection by the research firm MoffettNathanson. Networks will lose out on $25.5 billion in spending, according to a report released on Thursday by the WARC research group.

Viewership is not the problem now that millions of homebound people have limited entertainment options. But the economic fallout of the pandemic has caused companies to slash TV ad budgets by more than 40 percent, according to the research firm Kantar. In response, networks have offered commercial time at double-digit discounts.

Many companies have cut back on the big-budget commercial productions out of necessity, with filming largely shut down. In the first weeks of lockdown, new commercials were cobbled together out of old footage. More recently, the tone has shifted, with commercials focused on a return to normalcy and praise for essential workers.

Treasury will set aside $10 billion to provide loans to disadvantaged communities.

The Treasury Department said on Thursday that it is setting aside $10 billion in funds from a $660 billion small business lending program to be used only by a group of lenders that focus specifically on disadvantaged communities.

The money, which Congress allocated for a coronavirus response effort known as the Paycheck Protection Program, will go to loans made by community development financial institutions. These special lenders, many of which are nonprofits, work in poor communities and often provide capital to minority-owned businesses that otherwise could not get loans.

The announcement follows weeks of pressure from lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, who have been worried that minority-owned business owners were being shut out of the lending program. A spokesman for Mr. Schumer said that the senator had held numerous one-on-one phone calls with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to discuss the matter.

“I want to thank Secretary Mnuchin for heeding our calls to set aside a pool of funding specifically designated for lending by CDFIs,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. He said he and other lawmakers are now pushing for a separate pool of money to be reserved only for use in the program by minority-run banks.

Unemployment claims continue to mount, with 2.1 million filed last week.

6

million

40.8 million

5

Claims were filed in

the last 10 weeks

4

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

3

2

RECESSION

1

’06

’08

’09

’12

’16

’20

6

million

40.8 million

5

Claims were filed in

the last 10 weeks

4

3

RECESSION

2

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

1

’06

’08

’09

’12

’16

’20

Source: Department of Labor

By The New York Times

Another 2.1 million unemployment claims were filed last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, pushing the total past 40 million — the equivalent of one out of every four American workers — since the coronavirus pandemic grabbed hold in mid-March.

The report marks the eighth week in a row that new jobless filings dipped from the peak of almost 6.9 million, but the level is still far above historic highs.

The latest claims may be not only a result of fresh layoffs, but also evidence that states are working their way through a backlog. And overcounting in some places and undercounting in others makes it difficult to measure the layoffs precisely.

Under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, Congress approved an expanded palette of jobless benefits that included freelancers, self-employed and gig workers and others who would not normally qualify under state rules. But many states, flooded with applicants, were slow to put the program into effect, and those eligible may not yet be fully reflected.

“When we think about what to do when benefits expire, it would be helpful to know how many people are actually getting them,” said Elizabeth Pancotti, a research assistant at the National Bureau of Economic Research. While the Labor Department reports may be the best source of information, she said, they offer an “incomplete picture.”

The jobless data does not include millions of other laid-off workers.

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Matthew Wilson lost his barista job in Philadelphia, then was turned down for unemployment benefits because he had been working in the state for less than a year.Credit...Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

Laid-off workers who have not applied for benefits and those who have left the labor force entirely are not included in the Labor Department’s weekly report. Nor are any of the eight million undocumented workers who lost their jobs. They are not eligible for any benefits. Neither are new graduates just entering the labor force.

Matthew Wilson, 24, who lost his barista job in Philadelphia, was turned down because he had been working in the state for less than a year.

“It doesn’t make any sense — I moved, and now I’m magically not qualified for unemployment?” said Mr. Wilson, who relocated to Pennsylvania after graduating from Tufts University in Massachusetts last year. He appealed the decision and heard last week that his claim had been approved, but he hasn’t received any money. His partner, who also lost her job as a barista, has applied four times but has yet to collect benefits.

Even now, three states have not put pandemic unemployment insurance program into effect, and several others have yet to report any claims. Thirteen states have not started another federal emergency relief program, to provide an additional 13 weeks of benefits to workers who have exhausted their state benefits.

The White House won’t update its economic projections this summer.

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President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House on Tuesday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Trump administration will not issue a midyear update to its economic forecasts this summer, breaking decades of tradition amid the uncertainty of a pandemic recession, officials confirmed on Thursday.

The decision, first reported by The Washington Post, will spare the administration from having to reveal its internal projections for how deeply the recession will damage economic growth and how long the pain of high unemployment will persist.

When the administration last published official projections in February, it forecast economic growth of 3.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020, and growth rates at or around 3 percent for the ensuing decade. It forecast an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent for the year.

The virus has rendered those projections obsolete. Unemployment could hit 20 percent in June, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNN this week. The Congressional Budget Office said in April that it expects the economy will contract by 5.6 percent this year and end with unemployment above 11 percent.

The White House is required by law to issue both an annual budget and a midyear update to it, called a “mid-session review.” Updating economic projections in the mid-session review is optional, but it is a practice that administrations — including President Trump’s — have widely followed since the review was mandated by Congress in 1970.

A senior administration official defended the decision not to publish updated forecasts, saying the economic uncertainty caused by the virus “would produce a less instructive forecast.” The official, who declined to be identified, also said the White House was under no legal obligation to release the revised forecast.

Catch up: Here’s what else is happening.

  • Costco Wholesale said on Thursday that its net sales rose 7.3 percent to $36.5 billion in its quarter ending May 10 and that it posted a net profit of $838 million, as the pandemic prompted customers to stock up on goods. The warehouse chain, which has more than 500 U.S. locations, said its income took a hit from a $283 million pretax charge “from incremental wage and sanitation costs related to Covid-19.”

  • J.C. Penney, the 118-year-old retailer that filed for bankruptcy this month, said on Thursday that it has reopened 304 of its stores, roughly one-third, and plans to have almost 500 stores open by June 3. The chain said that it was offering curbside pickup at its opened stores and special shopping hours for “at-risk customers” on Wednesdays and Fridays.

  • The British low-price airline easyJet said on Thursday that it planned to reduce staff by up to 30 percent and that it expected to fly in the July-September period at nearly 30 percent of the capacity a year earlier. When flights restart, staff and passengers will be required to wear masks and, at least initially, no onboard food service will be offered, the company said.

  • It wasn’t a total blackout, but for one minute on Wednesday night, a cluster of billboards in the northern section of Times Square went dark. The shut-off was designed to pressure insurance companies to cover pandemic-related losses incurred by businesses. The effort was coordinated by the Business Interruption Group, which was founded by celebrity chefs including Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller along with a Louisiana lawyer who has helped sue several insurers over the scope of their policies during the coronavirus crisis.

  • The activist investor Carl Icahn sold his 55 million-share stake in the car rental giant Hertz, in what he described in a securities filing on Wednesday as a “significant loss.” The Hertz stock had traded at $15 per share for months before spiking in February and then crashing, resulting in a bankruptcy filing last week. Mr. Icahn sold the shares at $0.72 each.

  • Nissan said on Thursday that it would close plants in Spain and Indonesia and cut global production by 20 percent as it seeks to remake itself into a smaller, more efficient automaker, an announcement that comes as it reported its first annual loss in 11 years.

Reporting was contributed by Ben Casselman, Patricia Cohen, Kate Conger, Maggie Haberman, Niraj Chokshi, Ben Dooley, Sapna Maheshwari, Geneva Abdul, Mohammed Hadi, Emily Flitter, Jim Tankersley, David Gelles, David Yaffe-Bellany, Tiffany Hsu, Carlos Tejada, Katie Robertson and Gregory Schmidt.

A correction was made on 
May 28, 2020

An earlier version of this briefing misstated the timeframe of a White House forecast. The administration forecast 3.1 percent growth from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020, not 2021.

How we handle corrections

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