Despite good growth forecasts, the improvement in the labor market is taking “longer” than expected across the Atlantic.
(illustration) ( GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / SPENCER PLATT )
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Weekly jobless claims rose last week, contradicting analysts’ expectations and rising above the 400,000 claims mark, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
Between June 6 and 13, 412,000 people applied for unemployment benefits, 37,000 more than the previous week. Analysts were expecting a drop to 350,000. The jobless claims had dropped two weeks ago, below the 400,000 mark, for the first time since the abrupt shutdown of the American economy in March 2020. And for the last week, the Department of Labor has revised down the number to 375,000 from 376,000 originally announced.
Anticipated end for aid to the unemployed?
Despite the rise recorded last week, on average over four weeks, new requests amount to 395,000, a decrease of 8,000 compared to the previous period.
On Wednesday, the US Central Bank revised its growth forecast for 2021 upwards to + 7% but it kept its unemployment rate forecast unchanged at 4.5%.
Its chairman, Jerome Powell, admitted at a press conference that improving the labor market took “more time”, citing multiple obstacles such as the mismatch between job vacancies and profiles of the unemployed. , child custody issues, the persistence of fear of Covid.
The Republicans point to exceptional unemployment benefits that are too generous, encouraging more to stay at home than to accept a job. Many employers have reported unfilled vacancies. Most of the republican states will reduce or eliminate in the coming weeks the additional aid granted to the unemployed since the start of the crisis, without waiting for their expiry in early September.
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