New jobless claims unexpectedly decline for 2nd week in a row
December 31, 2020
The number of Americans filing new jobless claims has again declined unexpectedly while remaining historically high. The Labor Department on Thursday said 787,000 Americans filed new jobless claims last week, down 19,000 from the revised level of the week before. This was the second consecutive week that the number of new jobless claims declined unexpectedly, as economists were anticipating the number of claims would climb to 828,000.
Bloomberg notes, however, that the "figures are often volatile around holidays." Last week, the Labor Department reported 803,000 new jobless claims, down from 892,000 the previous week. Still, both numbers remain higher than the record number of weekly claims prior to the coronavirus pandemic, 695,000, and the latest number of claims is still almost four times higher than at this point a year ago.