DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 803,000 last week, the first decline in three weeks, the Labor Department reported.
In the week ending Dec. 19, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased by 89,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised level of 892,000, according to a report released by the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The decline came after the number rose for two consecutive weeks amid surging COVID-19 cases. The previous week’s figure marked the highest in three months, indicating a disruption of the labor market’s recovery.
In the week ending Oct. 17, the figure dipped below 800,000 for the first time since late March, and has been largely declining in the following weeks, but the trend was reversed in the weeks ending Nov. 14 and Nov. 21, and then in the weeks ending Dec. 5 and Dec. 12.
The latest jobless claims data suggest that “employment could be flat to negative” in December as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans dried up and many stores and restaurants were forced to close for good, Diane Swonk and Yelena Maleyev, economists at Grant Thornton, a major accounting firm, wrote in a blog.
“Some of the surge in the first half of December reflected a catch-up in claims that were delayed over the Thanksgiving holiday,” they said, noting that initial unemployment claims remain close to four times the pace a year ago.
The BLS report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits in the week ending Dec. 12 declined by 170,000 to 5.3 million. However, recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal program that applies to workers who usually do not qualify for regular state unemployment benefits such as the self-employed and gig workers, rose by 26,556 to 9.27 million in the week ending Dec.
