New unemployment insurance weekly claims declined again this week, coming in at a little over 1.5 million claims. This is down substantially from more than 6 million claims posted per week in late March and early April but still higher than pre-COVID-19 levels. Nearly 21 million Americans remain unemployed, up from just 1.7 million a year ago. As businesses continue to reopen, new unemployment claims and total unemployed is expected to decline in the coming weeks.