The Labor Department provides weekly jobless claims report on Thursday, it is the most timely data on the economy’s health. The report showed a decline in the number of people receiving unemployment cheques in mid-May. The numbers are still very high, which suggests it could take the economy a long while to rebound as businesses reopen.

In an article by Lucia Mutikani at Reuters, the government has passed a number of bills to help companies and people in the economy, Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economics in Holland, Penn said, the government is helping people which is good, but the PPP is creating problems with understanding what exactly is happening.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 323,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.123 million for the week ended May 23. Claims have been going down since they hit a record 6.867 million in late March, but have not registered less than 2 million since mid March.

Layoffs persist in the insurance, educational services, public administration, transportation and warehousing, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and retail trade industries.

A record 40.767 million people filed claims since March 21.

All the claims show the economy is complicated with full time and part time workers trying to earn a living. While the drop in claims as the economy opens up is good news, it is hard to imagine all those people will be going to work sooner than later.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the governments have made great strides to keep normalcy in the economy, but no one knows how long it will last or should last, at present there is a debate to see how the government money has flowed through the economy. We will see what kind of political will there is in the mean time, because people are people and there is an election in the fall.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.