Last week, 268,000 people registered as unemployed, only 1,000 less than the previous week. Analysts were expecting 260,000 new requests.
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Unemployment claims in the United States fell very slightly last week, continuing to evolve at levels close to those before the pandemic.
For the week ended November 13, 268,000 people registered as unemployed to receive an allowance, only 1,000 less than the previous week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
This is a little above the expectations of analysts who were counting on 260,000 new requests.
The figure for the previous week was revised slightly up to 2,000, bringing new jobless claims that week to 269,000, the ministry said.
In mid-March, just before the implementation of the first containment measures in the United States, weekly requests for allowances stood at 225,500.
“The modest decline in benefit claims is not significant, but the trend remains downward,” notes Ian Shepherdon, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics.
“Unfortunately, the numbers are going to be volatile over the holidays as usual, starting from next week’s Thanksgiving report. We will have to wait until mid-January for the next reliable indicator, ”adds the expert.
The total number of beneficiaries, which is calculated one week behind the number of new requests, has also fallen to its lowest since the start of the pandemic.
At the end of the week of November 6, 2.1 million people were receiving unemployment benefit in the country, or 129,000 less than the week before.
They were more than 20 million last year at the same period and still more than 5 million at the beginning of the year.
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