In mid-March, fresh unemployment benefit claims decreased to a 2.5-month low of 214,000, indicating that labour demand remains high as the US economy picks up from the outbreak. Moreover, the Labor Department reported Thursday that initial unemployment claims fell by 15,000 from a projected 229,000 the previous week.
In the seven days ending March 12, analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expected first unemployment claims to number 220,000, seasonally adjusted.
Weekly unemployment claims seem to be approaching or even falling under the 200,000 mark once more. At the ending of last year, they fell to its lowest in last 52 years to 188,000.
The main issue that businesses are facing is sourcing sufficient workers in the midst of the most severe labour shortage in modern history. Even so, in the last three months, the economy has added an aggregate of 582,000 additional jobs per month.
The US economy will likely continue to develop at a constant speed as long as labour demand remains high. In the short term, the biggest threats are excessive inflation, which has been aggravated by the crisis in Ukraine, and the probable emergence of yet another coronavirus strain.
Unadjusted unemployment numbers declined in over half of the states, which included a significant drop in New York, which rolled back a substantial surge the week before. Michigan has been only state to see a significant growth in the number unemployment compensation claims.
Meanwhile, the people who receive jobless benefits fell by 71,000 to about 1.42 million during the week ending March 5. That’s a fresh low for the pandemic situation.
“Demand for labor is strong, and there are no reasons to believe that this will change any time soon, barring another wave of a new COVID variant. We expect that both initial and continuing claims will be biased toward heading lower in the weeks ahead,” Thomas Simons of Jefferies, money market economist, stated in a note sent to clients.
