WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, suggesting the labor market was stabilizing as authorities began to decline. reducing pandemic-related restrictions on businesses.
Despite signs that layoffs are ebbing, the weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday showed that at least 17.8 million Americans were on benefits in mid-January, indicating long-term unemployment. time is likely to enter. That could boost President Joe Biden ‘s attempt to overtake the U.S. Congress over his $ 1.9 trillion recovery plan.
Finance Secretary Janet Yellen told ABC’s Good Morning America that the big incentive plan was needed “to make sure people, if they don’t have jobs, are supported.”
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 33,000 to 779,000 seasonally adjusted for the week ending January 30. That was the third straight weekly decline and exceeded economists’ forecasts for 830,000 claims .
Unchanged claims were down 23,525 to 816,247 last week. Economists prefer the number that has not changed due to earlier difficulties to adjust the claim data for seasonal fluctuations due to the economic shock caused by the pandemic.
“The decline in new claims in recent weeks adds to the evidence that the worst months for the labor market could be behind us,” said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte. North Carolina.
Including a government-funded program for the self-employed, gig workers and others not eligible for the state’s regular unemployment programs 1.2 million people applied last week.
Claims are still above their 665,000 peak since the Great Depression of 2007-09, but well below the high of 6.867 million in March last year when the pandemic hit the shores of the United States.
Part of the rise in claims shows people reapplying for benefits after the government at the end of December updated unemployment of $ 300 to March 14 as part of a package worth nearly $ 900 billion in relief additional pandemic.
U.S. stocks opened higher. The dollar went strong against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices were lower.
LAYOFFS SUBSIDING
Although January was the worst month since the outbreak began, the decline in economic activity slowed in the second half of the month amid signs of a peak in the recent coronavirus wave.
Data from Homebase, a payroll and registration company, showed that the number of employees at work was flat over the last two weeks of January, halting the decline seen from December to January.
Other data on Thursday from global export company Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that job cuts announced by U.S.-based employers rose only 3.3% to 79,552 in January.
The claims report also showed that the number of people receiving benefits after initial aid week fell by 193,000 to 4.592 million during the week ending January 23. Approximately 17.836 million people were on unemployment benefits. earnings on all programs in mid-January down from 18.322 million in the first week of 2021.
Last week ‘s claims data has no effect on Friday’ s January earnings report as it is outside the survey period, which was in the middle of the month. However, the stability signals in other labor market measures support expectations that employment would rebound in January after the economy lost jobs in December for the first time in eight months.
According to a Reuters poll of pay economists apparently increased 50,000 jobs in January after declining 140,000 in December. Hopes that the economy created jobs last month were boosted by Wednesday’s reports showing reversals in private payments and the services industry’s earnings in January.
This week’s survey also showed that manufacturers were hiring more workers in January.
But some economists are pushing for a second straight month of job losses in January. The Conference Board ‘s survey last week showed that consumer perceptions of labor market conditions declined further in January.
The economy has recovered 12.5 million of the 22.2 million jobs lost in March and April. The Congressional Budget Office estimated Monday that employment would not return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.
In a separate report on Thursday, the Department of Labor said nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per employee, fell at an annual rate of 4.8% in the last quarter. That was the deepest shaking rate since the second quarter of 1981. Productivity grew by 5.1% in the third quarter.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had predicted that productivity would decline by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, productivity increased at a rate of 2.5%.
Reciting with Lucia Mutikani; Edited by Chizu Nomiyama