U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Rise To 230,000
Newsy
The rise in claims is likely due to layoffs resulting from a surge in COVID cases, according to economists.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since mid-November, but is still low by historical standards.
U.S. jobless claims climbed by 23,000 last week to 230,000, the Department of Labor said Thursday. The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week blips, rose nearly 6,300 to almost 211,000.
The weekly applications, a proxy for layoffs, have risen in four of the last five weeks, a period that runs in tandem with the spread of the Omicron variant. Yet the jobs market has bounced back strongly from last year's coronavirus recession. Jobless claims had fallen mostly steadily for about a year and they dipped below the pre-pandemic average of around 220,000 a week.
