Aug. 27 (UPI) — Another 1 million U.S. workers have filed for new unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday.
The report listed 1,006,000 new claims for the week ending Aug. 22, an decrease of 98,000 from the previous week. It listed the unemployment rate at 9.9%.
Thursday’s report also revised down last week’s claims by 2,000 filings.
Most economists expected about 1 million new claims.
The department said there are 14.5 million continuing claims, which lag initial claims by a week.
The department reported 1.1 million new claims last week, which was higher than experts had predicted. The week before, new claims dipped below 1 million for the first time since March.
The unemployment report came about a half hour before Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was scheduled to deliver a speech outlining a critical plan to stimulate the economy amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.