DNC Chair and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez released the following statement after nearly 1.5 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment last week:

“For the 27th consecutive week, more people have filed for unemployment benefits than during the single worst week of the Great Recession, and new state unemployment claims increased last week. Donald Trump keeps taking us in the wrong direction. He’s had eight months to tackle this pandemic. But all he’s shown is inaction, incompetence, deception, and denial. Thanks to his failed leadership, more than 200,000 Americans have perished, millions of jobs have disappeared, and our economy is in recession. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will act decisively to end this crisis and build our economy back better.”

Nearly 1.5 million Americans filed new unemployment claims last week. For 27 consecutive weeks, more people have filed for benefits than during the single worst week of the Great Recession.

New York Times: “About 825,000 Americans filed for state unemployment benefits last week. … In addition, 630,000 initial filings were recorded for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.”

CNN’s John Harwood: “27th consecutive week with more claims than ever recorded in any week before coronavirus”

Business Insider: “Thursday’s reading still surpasses the 665,000 filings made during the Great Recession’s worst week.”

26 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment relief – over 17 times where we were a year ago.

Washington Post’s Heather Long: “**~26 million people are currently receiving some unemployment aid**”

Americans have filed 62 million initial unemployment claims since the pandemic began, far surpassing the total during the entire Great Recession.

Business Insider: “In nearly seven months, the roughly 62 million unemployment insurance filings made during the coronavirus pandemic have handily overshadowed the 37 million made during the 18-month Great Recession.”

Job growth continued to slow significantly in August.

Axios: “The labor market is rebounding, but the pace of hiring has dropped off. The slowdown could be a sign of what’s to come: a long, sluggish job market recovery… President Trump has praised job gains in recent months, even though they have consistently slowed from June’s surprise 4.8 million jump.”

BLS: “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.4 million in August, following increases of larger magnitude in the prior 3 months.”

Wall Street Journal: “The number of available jobs in the U.S. leveled off late this summer, the latest sign momentum in the labor market is easing six months after the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the U.S. The increase in the number of job postings, a real-time measure of labor-market activity, has slowed dramatically since late July, and last week stood about 20% below 2019 levels, according to data the job-search site Indeed.com shared with The Wall Street Journal.”

Fewer than half of jobs lost during the pandemic have come back, with 11.5 million fewer jobs than in February.

BLS: “Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.4 million in August, following increases of larger  magnitude in the prior 3 months. In August, nonfarm employment was below its February level by 11.5 million, or 7.6 percent.”

Washington Post’s Heather Long: “Official unemployment rate = 8.4%  That’s the lowest unemployment rate since March but one of worst in modern history. **About 48% of the 22 million jobs lost during the pandemic have returned**”

Permanent job losses rose by 534,000 in August to 2.1 million since February.

BLS: “In August, the number of permanent job losers increased by 534,000 to 3.4 million; this measure has risen by 2.1 million since February.”

Hispanic and Asian unemployment remains over 10 percent, and the Black unemployment rate remains nearly twice that of white Americans.

Washington Post’s Heather Long: “This continues to be a highly uneven recovery.  Black, Hispanic and younger workers remain over 10% unemployed Men: 8% Women: 8.4% Teens: 16.1% White: 7.3% Hispanic: 10.5% Asian: 10.7% Black: 13%”

There continue to be mass layoffs costing tens of thousands of jobs.

CBS News: “President Donald Trump has hailed the economy in speeches and on social media, proclaiming in August that ‘jobs are flowing.’ But even as some employers are rehiring workers, others are shedding thousands of jobs, with major companies announcing 50,000 job cuts in the last two weeks alone.”

MSN: “The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas on Thursday reported that announced job losses last month represented the highest August total since 2002. For the year to date, more than 1.96 million job cuts have been announced, more than triple the 592,556 jobs lost in all of 2019.”

Small businesses remain in peril with millions of small firms at risk and hundreds of thousands expecting to have to close in the next six months.

Bloomberg: “About one in 20 small firms say they expect to permanently shut down in the next six months, according to the latest Small Business Pulse Survey by the Census Bureau.”

CNBC: “Yelp also takes into account the businesses whose closures have become permanent. That number has steadily increased throughout the past six months, now reaching 97,966, representing 60% of closed businesses that won’t be reopening.”