By Samuel Stebbins
The Center Square
The COVID-19 pandemic set off an economic crisis that pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to levels that rivaled the highs of the Great Depression. Fortunately, the recovery has been relatively rapid, and weekly initial unemployment claims in the United States have been below half a million since early May 2021. The last time they were below that threshold was in March 2020, when President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for COVID-19.
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