The number of individuals filing new unemployment insurance claims unexpectedly rose back above 1 million last week, reflecting a still-elevated level of joblessness in the U.S.
The Labor Department released its report on weekly unemployment insurance claims Thursday morning. Here were the main metrics from the report, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
- Initial jobless claims, week ended Aug. 15: 1.12 million vs. 920,000 expected vs. 971,000 during the prior week
- Continuing claims, week ended Aug. 8: 14.84 million vs. 15 million expected vs. 15.48 million during the prior week
The report reflected the first increase in new jobless claims in three weeks. And new unemployment claims jumped back above their lowest level since the escalation of the pandemic in the U.S. in March during the week ended August 8.
At more than 1.1 million, last week’s total for new claims was well above the pre-pandemic record high of 665,000 from March 2009 during the Great Recession and reflected another wave of individuals newly filing for unemployment insurance as the coronavirus pandemic continued to disrupt businesses large and small. Before the coronavirus, new weekly jobless claims were coming in consistently below 250,000.
Since the week ended March 20, about 57.4 million Americans have now filed new unemployment insurance claims.
Click here to read the full story from Emily McCormick of Yahoo Finance.