From January 9 to 15, 286,000 new people applied for an allowance, ie 55,000 more than the previous week. Analysts had expected a decline to 211,000 requests.
–
The weekly jobless claims in the United States continued to climb, for the third week in a row, and are even at their highest since October, in the midst of the Omicron wave, contradicting analysts who expected a decline.
From January 9 to 15, 286,000 people registered as unemployed to receive benefits, according to Labor Department figures released Thursday.
This is 55,000 more than the previous week, for which registrations have also been revised slightly upwards (231,000 instead of 230,000 initially announced).
Analysts, on the other hand, expected a decline, and saw registrations fall to 211,000.
Jobless claims have been rising since December, despite the labor shortage facing US employers, which is pushing them to avoid laying off their employees.
The average number of registrations over four weeks is also climbing, and stands at 231,000 (+20,000 compared to the previous week).
The total number of benefit recipients is also climbing, and the country had 2.1 million recipients in the last week of December, according to the most recent data available, also released on Thursday.
This is 180,114 more than the previous week, but it is much less than the 16.9 million beneficiaries that the country had last year at the same time.
In December, the unemployment rate fell to 3.9%, returning close to its pre-pandemic level (3.5%). But job creations have lagged behind, and inequalities are very high.
–
