US unemployment filings move upward

US unemployment filings move upward

WASHINGTON: More US workers made new claims for unemployment benefits last week, according to government data released yesterday, though the metric of labor market health is expected to resume falling. There were 332,000 initial jobless claims, seasonally adjusted, filed in the week ended September 11, above analysts’ forecasts and 20,000 more than the week prior, the Labor Department reported.

Another 28,456 people, not seasonally adjusted, applied for benefits under Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a lapsed program that allowed freelance workers to claim aid. Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics predicted claims would resume their downward trajectory after government pandemic aid programs expired earlier this month, but that does not mean people are necessarily going back to work especially given the rising cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

“For the labor market, the health backdrop remains a key risk, especially if it continues to impact school reopenings and disrupts business operations,” she wrote in an analysis. New weekly jobless claims have dropped dramatically from their level when the pandemic began and sent them surging into the millions as Americans lost their jobs in droves.

However, more than 12.1 million people were still receiving government aid under all programs as of the week ended