The U.S. Department of Labor released its latest weekly report on jobless claims on Thursday, which revealed that over 770,000 Americans filed unemployment claims in the past week. This figure comes as a shock to analysts, particularly given the improving environmental conditions such as warmer weather and new social distancing restrictions.
The amount of jobless claims this week significantly exceeds the 700,000 expected claims, along with the revised amount of 725,000 claims last week. Continuing claims now sit at 4.124 million, a slight decrease from last week’s figure of 4.144 million.
Of the findings included in the report, perhaps the most astounding was that the current figure for initial jobless claims (hovering below 800,000) was significantly higher than consensus economists’ projections of 700,000 claims, which would have been a pandemic-era low. What’s more, this figure is well beyond the Great Recession-era high of 665,000 that was realized in 2009.
Deutsche Bank economist Brett Ryan wrote in a note that, “We expect jobless claims to continue to improve as the latest wave of the virus subsides and restrictions are lifted.” He added that the figure should soon improve as March is expected to be a month of increased hiring.
While most states reported improvement in their jobless claims figures, populous states such as Texas and Illinois experienced sharp increases of 21,000 and 17,000 respectively.
