Weak demand and a resurgence of cases are forcing United States employers to lay off workers, keeping new applications for unemployment benefits extraordinarily high, even as businesses have reopened, buttressing views the labour market could take years to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reported.

Roughly 29 million people were collecting unemployment checks at the end of May.

The resurgence in confirmed coronavirus cases across the country is being linked to the reopening of businesses.