Weekly claims for unemployment benefit in the US drop to 900,000

The weekly unemployment figure in the United States gives a little joy this Thursday. Requests for unemployment benefits in the country, the world’s largest power, have fallen to 900,000 in the last week, according to data released by the US Department of Labor.

The figure is somewhat more optimistic than anticipated by the market consensus, which placed it at 910,000. Last week, applications registered a substantial increase from 926,000.

Also, requests to renew unemployment benefits have dropped to 5.054 million from the 5.18 million collected the previous week. This data is even better than analysts’ anticipated. They estimated that the renewals would increase to 5.4 million. 

Biden will have to maintain up to 900,000 daily vaccinations to curb financial fatigue

The Administration of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, is aware that to revive the fatigue suffered by economic recovery since last December, it will be necessary to negotiate its ambitious stimulus plan, curb Covid-19 infections and accelerate vaccinations.

During the last seven days, the country has registered more than 1.39 million new infections, while deaths now exceed 400,306. 35.9 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been distributed, but only 16.5 million have been administered.

That is why Biden signed a dozen executive orders on Thursday as part of his strategy to tackle the pandemic. 

Biden revealed his national strategy to beat Covid-19 at the White House, where he promised to move heaven and earth to vaccinate more people. The president referred to the significant failure initially experienced in distributing the doses. He warned that the situation would worsen before improving. In this regard, he did not rule out that the number of deaths from coronavirus rises to 500,000 victims in the next month. 

Currently, vaccine deployment continues to increase, reaching between 800,000 and 900,000 doses per day. It suggests that Biden’s goal of achieving 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office would be within reach as long as it maintains these levels.

John Marshall, Goldman Sachs strategist, highlights how hospitalizations have decreased by 7% during the last 12 days as the impact of vaccinations, especially those aimed at the elderly. He sees the potential for a further decline in hospitalizations in the US in the coming weeks. The number of hospitalizations in the week that ended on January 9 reached 118,701.