New unemployment claims rise for the second week in a row

New unemployment claims last week rose to 778,000 — the second straight week that claims have increased, fueling new concerns about the economic cost of the virus’s surge.

An additional 311,000 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the supplemental unemployment insurance for gig and self-employed workers.

All together, 20.4 million people were claiming some form of unemployment insurance on Nov. 7, the most recent week available for that statistic, according to the Department of Labor.