Some 861,000 people filed for initial jobless claims in the week that ended Feb. 13, expectedly up 13,000 from the previous week, which was revised upward 55,000 to 848,000, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Thursday (Feb. 18).
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 6 was 4.494 million, a decline of 64,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 13,000 from 4,545,000 to 4,558,000.
Numbers for new claims dropped for four consecutive weeks prior to this uptick. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast a decrease to 773,000.
“We’re heading in the right direction,” University of Tennessee Labor Economist Marianne Wanamaker told WSJ. “I just don’t think we’re going to get there very quickly. Things are not as stalled as they were in January, but we don’t have any momentum.”
Most new jobless claims are a result of repeat layoffs, CNBC reported, citing new research. “Repeat unemployment is a serious issue,” said Peter Ganong, an economist at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the report. “There’s deep distress in the labor market.”
In July, unemployment filings topped one million for the 17th consecutive week. The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 4 were in Texas (20,506), New Jersey (19,410), Maryland (10,568), Louisiana (9,441) and New York (3,906).
The number of new jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 6 had dropped for the fourth consecutive week. Claims are still way above pre-pandemic levels and higher than the peak of the Great Recession in 2007-08 of 665,000. Some 6.867 million jobless claims were filed when the pandemic hit in March.
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