The United States Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday, which yielded surprising results. Despite the US economy making a gradual recovery following the coronavirus pandemic, 351,000 new initial unemployment claims were filed in the past week, compared to an originally expected figure of 320,000.
Currently, there are 2.845 million continuing jobless claims, a figure that was previously expected to be 2.6 million before the unexpected hike.
At the start of the month, new jobless claims declined to 312,000, their lowest level since March 2020, at the start of the pandemic outbreak. The current four-week moving average of jobless claims is 312,000, an improvement on previous months yet still higher than the 200,000 experienced in 2019.
Rubeela Farooqi, Chief Economist for High Frequency Economics, explained in a note that fluctuating health regulations in response to the pandemic could continue to have turbulent effects on the labor market: “Although supply constraints are expected to ease over coming months, the labor market still faces headwinds from the virus, especially if it continues to disrupt school reopenings and business activity.”
