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| - As lawmakers inch closer to a new stimulus package to help the pandemic-battered US economy, government data shows more workers are applying for unemployment benefits as the recovery stalls. A government relief package to aid struggling businesses and jobless workers is seen as essential in getting the world's largest economy back on its feet amid a resurgence of Covid-19 infections, even as new vaccines offer hope that life can return to normal. Without an agreement, millions of unemployed workers will lose their special pandemic benefits before the end of the year. Democratic leaders House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer held talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin late into the night Wednesday, and were due to speak again early Thursday, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill said. "All three emphasized the urgency to reaching an immediate agreement and will exchange additional paper and resume conversations in the morning," Hammill tweeted. Outgoing President Donald Trump, who has been pressing for more spending, chimed in, tweeting "stimulus talks looking very good." After posting a sharp recovery over the summer, the world's largest economy has again shown signs of stalling. Weekly data from the Labor Department released Thursday showed new applications for unemployment benefits rose again last week to 885,000, the fourth increase in the past five weeks. And while manufacturing has been one of the bright spots in the economy, a Federal Reserve survey of part of the northeastern United States showed factory activity slowed in November, echoing softening in other regions. "The federal aid package can't come a day too soon to mitigate job losses, declines in retail spending and a host of other measures that have headed down in the last two months," Robert Frick of Navy Federal Credit Union said. Despite months of negotiations, lawmakers in Washington have failed to break an impasse over a new package to follow the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, which provided loans and grants to businesses and expanded aid to workers hurt by the pandemic who would not normally be eligible for jobless benefits. Hope rose for an agreement after a bipartisan group of legislators floated a compromise option with a smaller price tag that excluded contentious provisions like aid for state and local governments and liability protection for businesses from Covid-related lawsuits. The package is expected to include another round of direct payments to American taxpayers, and legislators could attach the relief bill to a spending plan that keeps the government operating beyond the end of its current funding, which expires at midnight Friday. The US is going through an especially brutal period of Covid-19 cases, hitting more than 3,700 deaths and over 250,000 new infections in 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University. American experts will soon meet to decide whether to recommend approval of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, potentially paving the way for a second vaccine early next week after the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics warned that amid the deteriorating job markets, "The health crisis is likely to get worse after the upcoming holiday, which will translate into even wider limitations on activity, business closures and mounting job losses." hs/cs
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