719,000 Americans claim unemployment benefits for the first time

The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first time rose unexpectedly last week, according to the Department of Labor.

Data released Thursday showed 719,000 Americans first filed for unemployment in the week ended March 27. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected 680,000 deposits. The previous week’s reading was revised to 658,000 from 684,000. The increase comes a week after early deposits fell to their lowest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continuing claims for the week ended March 20, meanwhile, rose to 3.794 million, from 3.84 million revised down last week. Analysts expected 3.775 million Americans to file continuing claims.

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President Biden on Wednesday unveiled his more than $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan, the so-called US Jobs Plan, which he touted as a “once in a century capital investment” in the American infrastructure that will create millions of well-paying jobs. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. economy has lost an estimated 9 million jobs that have yet to be recovered.

An update on the health of the labor market is expected on Friday with the release of the March jobs report.

Economists expect the U.S. non-farm payroll to add 647,000 new non-farm jobs, with the unemployment rate at 6%, the lowest since March 2020, according to Refinitv.