U.S. states saw an unexpected increase in initial jobless filings last week, even as companies across industries looked to bring on workers to fill widespread vacancies.
The Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report Thursday morning and here are the numbers compared with consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Initial unemployment claims, week ended September 25: 362,000 vs. 330,000 expected, and an unrevised 351,000 during prior week
- Continuing claims, week ended September 18: 2.8 million vs. 2.8 million expected, and a revised 2.820 million during prior week
New weekly jobless claims have risen for three consecutive weeks, increasing off a pandemic-era low from earlier this month but still remaining well below heightened numbers from earlier this year. And initial unemployment claims have in recent months drawn closer to their pre-pandemic levels, with new weekly filings having come in at an average weekly pace of just over 200,000 in 2019.
Economists chalked up the mid-month increase in new jobless claims in part to a delayed impact from Hurricane Ida, which may have caused people to postpone unemployment filings at the beginning of the month. New jobless claims had reached a pandemic-era low of 312,000 at the start of September.
Fully returning the labor market to pre-pandemic levels, however, has become a matter of bringing more workers back into the labor force, rather than curbing layoffs and separations. Job openings were at a record high of 10.9 million on the last business day in July, according to the Labor Department’s latest monthly report, with some of the greatest demand for workers coming from the services sector.
Click here to read the full story from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.
