Unemployment compensation: 730,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week

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The declines in Ohio and Texas were “due to the deep freeze that took hold across the country,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, although that did not explain the much larger decline in warmer California.

Either way, there are always holiday and weather-induced distortions at this time of year in the jobless claims data, so investors should anticipate an increase in clams over the years. next two weeks, “he said.

Despite the surprising drop, the labor market is still not about to recover nearly a year after the start of the pandemic. Over the past six months, the state’s weekly jobless claims have been less than one million, but have never declined by 711,000 from November.

On top of that, 451,402 people ineligible for regular state claims, such as self-employed or on-demand workers, have requested assistance in the event of an unemployment pandemic. This number is not seasonally adjusted.

Overall, first-time claims stood at 1.2 million with no seasonal adjustment last week.

“For months, there has been no substantial improvement in the magnitude of total initial claims,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, in email comments. Despite changes in the claims trend, the total number of initial claims is still almost six times higher than the same period last year.

Unemployed claims remained at 4.4 million for the week ended February 13, a slight decrease from the previous week.

In the week ended February 6, more than 19 million Americans received benefits under various government programs. The number of workers receiving assistance under the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides additional weeks of payments after workers exhaust their regular state benefits, has increased from over one million to 5.1 million.

“Hopefully the upcoming spring weather conditions and continued vaccinations will be an economic boost,” Konkel said.

For states, the long-term unemployment of so many people is a growing financial burden. As of Tuesday, some 19 states borrowed more than $ 50 billion from the federal government to pay out benefits, according to the US Treasury.

California borrowed $ 19.5 billion, while New York borrowed just under $ 10 billion. Texas borrowed about $ 6.5 billion.

–Tami Luhby contributed to this story.

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