Number of U.S. workers filing for jobless aid stays near historic low
CBSN
As 2021 comes to a close, the number of U.S. workers filing for jobless aid is hovering near a 50-year low, underscoring how tight the labor market has become in the wake of a global pandemic.
Just 205,000 people filed for first-time unemployment benefits in the week ended December 18, unchanged from the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. A total of 1.9 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment aid as of mid-December, down from 5.6 million a year ago.
The latest figures suggest that the spread of the hyper-infectious Omicron variant has not yet triggered a wave of layoffs, as has happened with previous waves of the coronavirus.
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One of South Africa's most notorious apartheid police commanders testified on Monday at an inquiry into the killing of four activists in 1985 as part of the country's renewed focus on atrocities committed by security forces during decades of forced racial segregation that went unpunished. In: