Number of workers filing for jobless aid rises for third straight week to 362,000
CBSN
The number of workers applying for first-time jobless aid increased for the third week in a row last week — a sign the surge in coronavirus cases is causing an uptick in layoffs.
Some 362,000 people filed initial unemployment claims, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's an increase of 11,000 from the prior week.
"Claims rose again, and now it's evident higher layoffs are a side effect of the Delta wave," Robert Frick, corporate economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a note. With coronavirus cases nationwide appearing to have peaked, he predicted unemployment claims should resume falling in mid-October.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.