At the same time, the number of people who are receiving regular state unemployment aid fell 125,000 to 5.1 million. And fewer people were on extended unemployment benefit programs.
On Friday, the government will likely issue a gloomy jobs report for December. Economists expect it to show that hiring slowed for a sixth straight month — and possibly that employers shed positions for the first time since the job market collapsed in April just after the pandemic erupted.
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CAN BIDEN ADD ENERGY JOBS? HOPE MIXES WITH DOUBT
Good-paying jobs — many of them.
NETFLIX SCORES STREAMING RIGHTS TO NEW TOP SONY FILMS
Netflix further beefed up its film catalog on Thursday in a multi-year deal that will make it the new streaming home to Sony Pictures’ top releases in the U.S.
‘TANTALIZING' RESULTS OF 2 EXPERIMENTS DEFY PHYSICS RULEBOOK
Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled.
ELECTRIC CHEVY PICKUP TO GET ESTIMATED 400 MILES PER CHARGE
An electric version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck will get an estimated 400 miles of range per charge, General Motors says.
HIGH COURT SIDES WITH GOOGLE IN COPYRIGHT FIGHT WITH ORACLE
Technology companies sighed with relief after the Supreme Court sided with Google in a copyright dispute with Oracle. The high court said Google did nothing wrong in copying code to develop the Android operating system now used on most smartphones.
VOTE COUNTING TO START IN AMAZON UNION ELECTION
Vote counting in the union push at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, is expected to start as early as Thursday, but hundreds of contested ballots could muddy the outcome if it’s a close race.
PIECE OF SPACEX ROCKET DEBRIS LANDS AT WASHINGTON STATE FARM
A piece of burning rocket debris seen streaking across the Pacific Northwest sky last week crashed on a farm in eastern Washington state, authorities said.
5 HOME REMODELING TRENDS TO WATCH FOR IN 2021
After a year of spending more time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many homeowners are looking for ways to make their homes fit their new realities.
LAWMAKERS CALL YOUTUBE KIDS A ‘WASTELAND OF VAPID' CONTENT
A House subcommittee is investigating YouTube Kids, saying the Google-owned video service feeds children inappropriate material in “a wasteland of vapid, consumerist content” so it can serve them ads.
GROUPS: CENSUS PRIVACY TOOL COULD HURT VOTING RIGHTS GOALS
The findings reinforce concerns that differential privacy will lower the quality of the data used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts. They also suggest that the census figures won’t support efforts to protect the power of minority voters and comply with court rulings requiring districts to have equal population numbers.
