Unemployment in America has been slowly but surely rising over the last few weeks. For the third week in a row, the number of citizens requesting unemployment benefits rose. To give a broader picture of the situation, this is the highest level of unemployment benefit requests that have come in for a whole eight months.
In addition to these numbers, there have also been reports that factory activity in the country has slowed down—further indicating that the American economy as a whole is taking a bit of a downturn.
Fears of another recession have been on the rise for a while, and the signs have continued to point towards it. While optimists continue to hold out for a beacon of hope amidst the turmoil, rising unemployment requests continue to test their patience. After all, even the most positive of analysts can’t deny cold, hard facts.
Initial waves of panic were helped by the Federal Reserve lifting interest rates at an alarming pace, in order to combat the lopsided inflation that’s at its highest since the 80s.
To really hammer home these fears, Reuters released a poll that showed 40% of economists projecting that there will be a likely recession over the next year. This is a huge rise from 25% of economists who projected it last month.