More than 840,000 Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment last week, signaling a slow down in job growth.

Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March, jobless claims have stayed above 800,000 every week.

But according to the U.S. Department of Labor, this weeks claims are the lowest since the country's shutdown in mid-March because of the virus.

In contrast, continuing unemployment claims dropped to 10.98 million.
New numbers from the Labor Department show, claims dropped a little over 1 million from the week before.

While claims might be dropping in some states, at least 10 U.S. states still report double-digit unemployment rates. 

With over 20.1% unemployment, Hawaii has had the highest insured unemployment rate since the week of August 8th.

California and Nevada have the second and third highest unemployment rates with 16.1% and 13.7% respectively.

ABC News reports, California has "temporarily stopped accepting new unemployment claims in order to work though a backlog and implement fraud prevention technology."

Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump cancelled talks to approve another stimulus package until after the election. In an apparent about-face, Trump now says the talks have resumed. His Democratic party nemesis, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, confirmed this.

Without another round of coronavirus aid, many Americans and small businesses will be left empty-handed at a time when they need it most.

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