Jobless claims: Another 238,000 American filed new claims last week

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims: Another 238,000 American filed new claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Thu, February 3, 2022, 8:31 AM · 3 min read
{edited after a minute from: "Wed, February 2, 2022, 2:32 PM · 3 min read"}

Jobless claims trended lower in the latest weekly data, underscoring still-elevated demand for workers even as Omicron-related disruptions continued to exert pressure on the labor market.

The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial jobless claims, week ended Jan. 29: 238,000 vs. 245,000 expected, 260,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended Jan. 22: 1.628 million vs. 1.620 million expected, 1.675 million during prior week

First-time unemployment claims fell for a back-to-back week after rising to the highest level since October in mid-January, coming in at nearly 300,000. The spike in claims tracked a surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S. between December and January, which rendered many businesses temporarily closed and many individuals sick or concerned over becoming ill at work.

Still, the recent tallies of weekly jobless claims remain well off the highest points of the pandemic. And this time last year, jobless claims were coming in at a weekly rate of well over 800,000.

Story continues

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-unemployment-claims-week-ended-jan-29-2022-200147927-193206955.html

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Here are this morning's banner and yesterday's article about today's numbers.

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COMING UP Jobless claims preview: Another 245,000 American likely filed new claims
Check back at 8:30 a.m. ET for results

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Yahoo Finance
Jobless claims preview: Another 245,000 American likely filed new claims

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-unemployment-claims-week-ended-jan-29-2022-200147927-193206955.html

Emily McCormick
Emily McCormick·Reporter
Wed, February 2, 2022, 2:32 PM

Jobless claims likely trended slightly lower in the latest weekly data, as Omicron-related disruptions continued to exert pressure on the labor market.

The Labor Department is set to release its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here are the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial jobless claims, week ended Jan. 29: 245,000 expected, 260,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended Jan. 22: 1.619 million expected, 1.675 million during prior week

First-time unemployment claims fell to 260,000 last week after rising to the highest level since October in mid-January, coming in at nearly 300,000. The spike in claims tracked a surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S. between December and January, which rendered many businesses temporarily closed and many individuals sick or concerned over becoming ill at work.

Still, the recent tallies of weekly jobless claims remain well off the highest points of the pandemic. And this time last year, jobless claims were coming in at a weekly rate of well over 800,000.

"Omicron case counts remain elevated but have moved lower from the recent peak in mid-January," Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note Wednesday. "Businesses were forced to scale back or close temporarily because of infections or isolation protocols. However, as the health backdrop improves, we expect layoffs to continue to trend lower."

The general trend toward improving levels of jobless claims belies the strain many Americans are still experiencing on the sidelines of the workforce, however. According to The Century Foundation, about 3.8 million unemployed individuals have been unable to claim unemployment benefits because they have already exhausted their state or federal pandemic-era jobless insurance.

The jobless claims data also does not meaningfully capture the labor supply shortages that have emerged as the bigger weight to the labor market during this stage of the pandemic recovery. As of December, U.S. job openings had risen to nearly 11 million, nearing the all-time high reached back in July 2021 and marking a seventh straight month that vacancies held above the 10 million mark. This has caused increasing competition for employers trying to bring on and retain enough labor to meet demand.

{snip}

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

The boilerplate of the report has been changed just a little. The program contact person and number have changed. The change was made a month ago. The report from a month ago was the first with the new name and number.

Hat tip to the new guy, Kevin Stapleton.

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, February 3, 2022

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending January 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 238,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 260,000 to 261,000. The 4-week moving average was 255,000, an increase of 7,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 247,000 to 247,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2 percent for the week ending January 22, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 22 was 1,628,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 3,000 from 1,675,000 to 1,672,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,619,750, a decrease of 31,250 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since August 4, 1973 when it was 1,608,750. The previous week's average was revised down by 750 from 1,651,750 to 1,651,000.

{snip}

UNADJUSTED DATA

{snip}

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending January 15 was 2,067,781, a decrease of 73,205 from the previous week. There were 18,521,105 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2021.

{snip the rest of the twelve-page news release, until the end}

Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 22-173-NAT

Program Contacts:
Kevin Stapleton: [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]

[greenjar_01]

2. ANOTHER!

[NurseJackie]

3. I know... 🙄

Ridiculous, isn't it?