House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she expects the next COVID-19 stimulus package to be signed into law before federal unemployment benefits programs expire.

The youth unemployment rate was virtually unchanged, at 13 percent. The unemployment rate among women aged 25 to 54 rose by 0.3 percentage points to 5.3 percent in September.

The contrast becomes starker when the states’ unemployment rates before the pandemic are taken into account. Unemployment rates in red states have risen on average by less than 2.7 percentage points, compared to September 2019.

“The fact is, right now, 30 million people have filed for unemployment insurance, the unemployment rate is probably up around 19 percent.

Twenty-six states have now gained approval from FEMA to gain enhanced unemployment payments.

Two states will accept the Trump administration's full enhanced unemployment benefit while the out-of-work in over two dozen other states will get $300 a week.

The original Jobseeker unemployment benefit was $40 (US$25) a day but this was doubled for a six-month period as part of a huge package to help soften the blow caused by the pandemic.

“We’re going to need to fix unemployment," he told a congressional hearing. During the past three months, more than 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment, according to statistics from the Labor Department.

Unemployment claims ticked lower to 194,000 last week, also below economists' expectations. Recurring claims—the number of Americans still receiving jobless benefits—also fell to 1.701 million, according to the Department of Labor.

President Donald Trump took executive action on Saturday to extend the weekly enhanced unemployment payment at a reduced level.

Trump also suggested that he will extend the $600-per-month unemployment benefits for an unspecified period of time. Those were also included in the CARES Act.

“These unemployment ‘bonuses’ are going to further undermine workers’ relationship with their workplace, and they’re going to kill small businesses—both of which will make long-term unemployment much worse.”

“But we all need to keep in mind the huge hole that we’re in, in terms of jobs and unemployment.”

New York state has received a significant amount of new applications from people trying to collect unemployment insurance (UI) after businesses cut back or closed indefinitely amid the pandemic.

That bill includes continuing a $300 weekly unemployment supplement until late December.

While the number of payrolled employees is still falling, the decline is slowing and unemployment has held at 3.9 percent in the three months to May, the ONS said.

Commentary As China’s youth unemployment remains close to 20 percent, a new wave of business activity is gaining traction throughout the country.

During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union,” Pelosi said she believes lawmakers can find common ground on extending jobless benefits and unemployment insurance for struggling Americans.

(Labor Department) Unemployment among some groups have recovered faster than others. 

Separately, President Joe Biden on Monday argued that the expanded unemployment benefits don’t factor into why people aren’t looking for work.

Keeping social distancing measures in place is costing the Australian economy $4 billion a week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed at a press conference on May 5. Over 5 million people are on the Jobkeeper payment, with another 1 million claiming their superannuation retirement fund. “Thousands of Australian lives have been saved, when you look […]

Britain’s unemployment figures rose to 4.5 percent in August according to data published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

But the bad news is that 15 percent is a very high level of unemployment. We have not seen unemployment this high since the great depression of the 1930s."

“One thousand people just to take the incoming unemployment calls. That’s how high the volume is and they still can’t keep up with the volume.”

Unemployment and Bankruptcies Hong Kong's unemployment rate rose from 3.7 percent in the first quarter of 2026 to 3.8 percent in the second quarter, with approximately 153,900 people unemployed, according to the city’s Census and Statistics Department

Major cuts to California's budget would be required if the state puts President Donald Trump's new unemployment plan into place, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

This is the same rate of unemployment as October 2012, a month before President Barack Obama was reelected.

Hundreds of people line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Ky., on June 18, 2020.

People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Ark., on April 6, 2020.

The U.S. unemployment rate currently stands at around 11 percent, with at least 30 million Americans out of work. The Labor Department reported Thursday that about 1.4 million applied for unemployment insurance in the past week.