The Labor Department reports 1.5 million U.S. workers filed new unemployment claims over the past week. That includes 870,000 applicants for regular state unemployment benefits and another 630,000 who applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Some 26 million workers are now collecting jobless benefits. The Census Bureau reports 23 million U.S. adults live in households that don’t have enough food to eat, and an estimated one in four renters with children lives in a home that’s behind on rent.
This comes as lawmakers are poised to leave Washington for an extended recess, amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Majority Senate Republicans have yet to pass a new coronavirus relief bill, more than four months after the House passed its $3 trillion HEROES Act.