Unprecedented US job losses continue while Congress dithers over shrinking “relief” bill Catastrophic job losses continued for the 39th straight week in the United States, as documented by the latest US Department of Labor first-time unemployment claims report. The report revealed there were 885,000 filings for state benefits for the week ending December 12. This is the highest number since early September and 22,000 more than last week’s revised total of 862,000. The nearly 900,000 claims are roughly three times the 270,547 claims that were filed at this time last year. In addition to state claims, federal claims through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, designed for self-employed, contract and gig workers, were reported at 455,037, bringing the total number of claims to over 1.3 million for the second week in a row.