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The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly again last week amid lingering concerns about the increase in COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant, federal officials said Thursday. .
Initial jobless claims, seen as an indicator of layoffs, rose to 351,000 last week, up 16,000 from the revised level of 335,000 the week before, according to data released by the department on Thursday. work.
Economists polled by Dow Jones expected new weekly requests to drop to 320,000.
“I was hoping that progress on new jobless claims was not to appear in the latest snapshot, posting a second consecutive weekly increase,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. “Part of the explanation for the increase is due to large jumps from California and Virginia, providing a total of 37,000 new claims. At the same time, hurricane-battered Louisiana experienced a decline. “
Weekly new claims have declined significantly from the 2020 peak of around 6.1 million new claims in a single week, but remain above pre-pandemic levels.
After a summer that saw new jobless claims nearly double pre-pandemic levels, new jobless claims appear to be falling steadily – despite the pullback presented by the last two weeks of data.
The country recorded on average just over 200,000 new requests per week in 2019.
“The economy still has a lot of work to do assuming further progress will be made in the coming months while putting the pandemic behind,” Hamrick said.
Chris Giamo, head of commercial banking at TD Bank, said he believes the back-to-back increases over the past two weeks are a temporary setback that only interrupts a strong recovery.
“Despite the rise, claims are still near a pandemic-era low and we expect that with the major labor shortage and the rebound in expectations around the economy, companies will aim to hold back workers, ”he said. “And, for those who are ready to return to work after a period of displacement or unemployment, there are a record number of open jobs waiting.”
More than 2.8 million Americans remained on traditional state unemployment benefits, federal officials added.
Continuing claims unexpectedly increased by 131,000 from the revised level of the previous week, new data shows. That figure stood at around 13 million at the same time last year, at the height of the pandemic.
These claims have declined significantly from peaks seen in 2020, but the figure is still almost twice as high as pre-pandemic levels.
The economic recovery has made progress in recent months, but inflation and a nationwide labor shortage have held back further progress, economists say.
While last week’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index report showed some of the commodities responsible for the huge price spikes this summer are starting to ease, the job market is still struggling. .
The country created just 235,000 jobs last month, well below expectations and fueling concerns about the slowing economic recovery.
“There’s no question that the Delta variant is the reason today’s employment report isn’t stronger. I know people were looking and hoping for a higher number, ”President Biden said earlier this month in the report.
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