Weekly jobless claims rose after setting a more than five-decade low last week. Still, however, new claims came in near pre-pandemic levels, highlighting ongoing improvements in the labor market.
The Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday and here are the main metrics compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Initial unemployment claims, week ended Nov. 27: 222,000 versus 240,000 expected, and a revised 194,000 during prior week.
Continuing claims, week ended Nov. 20: 1.9 million versus 2 million expected, and 2 million during prior week.
At 222,000, jobless claims rose for the first time in eight weeks. Continuing claims, which measure the total number of workers still claiming unemployment benefits across regular state programs, did fall to a fresh March 2020 low, reaching 1.9 million.
Last week’s downwardly revised 194,000 jobless claims – which brought new claims well below even their pre-pandemic 2019 weekly average of about 220,000 – were seen by many pundits as a one-time event. And this figure was revised down even further from the 199,000 claims first reported last week.
Click here to read the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.
