Weekly new jobless claims unexpectedly jumped last week by the most since October, with some renewed virus-related disruptions at least temporarily impeding the labor market’s recovery.
The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday and here are the main metrics from the print compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Initial jobless claims, week ended Jan. 15: 286,000 versus 225,000 expected and a revised 231,000 during prior week
- Continuing claims, week ended Jan. 8: 1.63 million versus 1.56 million expected and a revised 1.55 million during prior week
Initial unemployment claims rose for a third straight week, coming in near the 300,000 level. This represented some backsliding from recent progress in the trajectory of jobless claims. Claims had reached a 52-year low of 188,000 in December, as many employers attempted to keep their existing workforces in the face of widespread labor shortages.
Continuing claims also came in higher-than-expected in the most recent data. These claims, which tracks filers still collecting regular state unemployment benefits, rose by more than 1.6 million in mid-January. Still, continuing claims had come in at the lowest level since 1973 just a week earlier.
The most recent move higher in new claims may be due to some impacts from the Omicron variant and ultimately prove temporary, according to some economists.
“After having notched the lowest levels in decades, new claims are moving in the wrong direction. Omicron deserves suspicion for some new job loss, with pressures being seen both on the labor demand and supply sides,” Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com senior economic analyst, wrote in an email Thursday. “Because of the pandemic, some workers have been sidelined and no doubt some businesses have been negatively impacted by this latest wave of the pandemic.”
Click here to see the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.
