During the week ending Oct. 10, 885,885 Americans filed for unemployment, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and another 372,891 peopled filed for assistance through the government's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which offers relief to freelancers, the self-employed and those working in non-traditional jobs. The news comes as Congress and the White House continue to fail to agree on a second federal aid package and the New York Times reports that 8 million Americans are now considered poor, and the U.S. surpassed 8 million known cases of Covid-19 as epidemiologists warn of a third peak as 17 states experience a surge in infections, particularly in the Midwest.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Oct. 3 were in Florida (9,933), Illinois (6,877), Massachusetts (4,021), North Carolina (2,907) and Maryland (1,714), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (3,504), Kansas (3,312), Pennsylvania (3,111), Louisiana (2,835) and Washington (2,474).