New US unemployment claims spike back above 700,000: Govt

First-time claims spiked 61,000 to 719,000 in the week ended March 27, from 658,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.

AFP

April 01, 2021 / 20:06 IST

New applications for jobless benefits in the US jumped last week, reversing most of the improvement in the prior week when the total dipped below 700,000 for the first time since the pandemic shuttered the US economy.

First-time claims spiked 61,000 to 719,000 in the week ended March 27, from 658,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.

The result contradicted recent upbeat reports of job gains as businesses reopen and vaccination efforts accelerate, and confounded economists' predictions of a modest decline in the total.

And the weekly data show more than 237,000 people sought benefits under the special pandemic aid program for freelance and gig workers.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.