The number of unemployment claims reached its highest in five years, and a new government outreach program may have brought it on.
Congress passed the program in June, enabling individuals who are out of work to qualify for 13 additional weeks of benefits.
With the intention of helping those who are unemployed for an extended period of time, the initiative is keeping people out of the job market.
An increase in unemployment numbers is now misleading, because those out of work are staying there, causing the number to only grow. It will take longer to shrink the amount of unemployment claims with the extended benefits window.
As the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5% in June, and now 5.7% for July, the government did have to take action.
A huge drop in the housing market and related sectors, combined with rising fuel prices and a collapse in the auto industry, not to mention the overall weakness of the economy, has pushed the labor market into dire straits.
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