Business Notes: Unemployment Continues To Rise

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In today's Business Notes, they weren't as bad as the previous week, but they are still troubling.

Officials reported 5.2 million more people filed for unemployment last week.

That brings the total to 22 million in just the last week.

As for Pennsylvania, there was a slight decline from the previous week as an estimated 238,000 new claims were filed last week.

While the overall unemployment numbers grow, the dollars have declined to near zero in the program to provide loans to small businesses.

This morning, the Small Business Administration announced it was no longer taking any new applications for loans because the $350 billion loan program was out of money.

Republicans in Congress want to approve another $250 billion in funds, but the Democrats want to include money for hospitals and state and local governments in any new funding.

That is something the Republicans say can be tacked at a later date.

The Wall Street Journal reports that China has imposed new restrictions on allowing testing kits, face masks and other medical equipment to be shipped to the United States and other countries.

Many companies and corporations believe testing has to be increased before the country can reopen.

One of those companies is Amazon, which announced it is going to begin a program of testing all of its employees for coronavirus, including those who show no symptoms.

And, now looking ahead, Google's parent company announced it is going to reduce the number of people it is hiring.

Like many other companies, it is trying to assess what the future may look like as this virus outbreak continues.

Here are the closing numbers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a gain of 33 points.

The NASDAQ was up 139 points and the S&P 500 gained 16 points.