By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com --The number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits again came in higher than expected, extending a sequence of only minimal declines as the pandemic continues to generate high numbers of layoffs.
Initial jobless claims totaled 793,000 last week, some 36,000 higher than the 757,000 expected ahead of time by economists. In absolute terms, that was still a decline from the previous week's number, which was revised higher to 812,000 from an initial estimate of 779,000.
The rate of initial claims hit its slowest since the pandemic back in early December and has run fairly constantly at around 800,000 a week since then.
The number of people making continuing claims also came in above expectations at 4.545 million, but likewise indicated a drop from an upwardly revised number for the previous week.
Continuing claims are calculated with a one-week lag to initial ones, and thus date to January 23rd. As of that date, there were a total of 20.44 million claiming jobless benefits of various sorts. That represented a rise of over 2.5 million from the previous week, owing to big increases in the use of two special schemes related to the pandemic. These have recently regained importance after Congress extended eligibility for the programs in the dying days of the Trump administration.
The numbers underline the slow nature of progress as the U.S. starts to emerge from the worst surge yet in Covid-19 cases. The economy has lost around 10 million jobs on a net basis since the pandemic exploded a year ago. January's labor market report showed a net gain of fewer than 50,000 jobs through the middle of the month, although private payrolls processor ADP has indicated that private-sector hiring was substantially stronger.
In a keynote speech on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell had stressed the need for fiscal policy to give "continued support" to both households and businesses, while promising that the Fed's monetary policy would remain "patiently accommodative."
“Published unemployment rates during Covid have dramatically understated the deterioration in the labor market,” Powell said.