US Weekly Jobless Claims Up Over 2% As Struggle With COVID Continues - Labor Dept.

US Weekly Jobless Claims up Over 2% as Struggle With COVID Continues - Labor Dept.

Some 744,000 Americans filed for jobless claims last week, up 2.2 percent from the previous week, according to Labor Department data on Thursday that demonstrated the job market's continued struggle with the coronavirus pandemic

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2021) Some 744,000 Americans filed for jobless claims last week, up 2.2 percent from the previous week, according to Labor Department data on Thursday that demonstrated the job market's continued struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.

"In the week ending April 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 744,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level," the department said in a news release.

In the previous week to March 27, filings for jobless benefits rose to 728,000, rising back above the 700,000 level it broke below the prior week, the first time since the COVID-19 breakout a year ago.

Economists polled by US media had forecast 680,000 jobless claims filings for last week to continue with the narrative of an improving labor market.

There were not many clues for the jump of more than 2 percent in weekly claims. Some analysts thought the numbers may have been higher if not for last week's Good Friday holiday in some US territories.

The "Easter (break) could skew these numbers for a couple weeks," Adam Button, economist at ForexLive, said in a commentary.

Some pointed to the persistent drop in continuing jobless weekly claims as a sign of labor market progress. Continuing weekly claims reported with a one-week lag slid to 3.73 million for the week ended April 3, from 3.75 million during the week to March 27.

The weekly reading for annual unemployment was at 2.6 percent, unchanged from the previous week. While this number is included in each weekly report on jobless claims, policymakers tend to, however, look at the monthly unemployment rate as a better gauge of the overall jobs picture. The last monthly unemployment rate published by the Labor Department was 6 percent for March.

A year into the COVID-19 crisis, restoring job growth remains one of the biggest challenges of US policymakers.

The United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April 2020, at the height of business lockdowns forced by the coronavirus. About 8.5 million of those jobs may have not returned, data shows.

The US economy itself shrank 3.5 percent in 2020, after a 2.2 percent growth in 2019.