Another 900,000 people filed new unemployment claims last week, President Donald Trump's last in office, a snapshot of the significant labor market challenges facing President Joe Biden. An additional 423,000 people in 47 states filed new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the program created to help gig and self-employed workers. The number of new unemployment claims filed each week has remained above the pre-pandemic record of 695,000 since coronavirus cases starting rising in March. Weekly jobless claims are now near what they were at the beginning of September. It's the 44th straight week that initial claims remain higher than the worst week of the Great Recession.
