WASHINGTON (AP) – Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week after three consecutive increases, amid a rise in COVID-19 Omicron variant infections.
Initial jobless claims fell by 30,000 to 260,000 for the week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, below the 265,000 economists had anticipated.
The four-week moving average, which smooths weekly volatility, rose by 15,000 to 247,000, the highest in two months.
Overall, about 1.7 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits in the week ending January 15, up by 51,000 from the previous week.
A recent uptick in COVID-19 infections has halted what had been a solid recovery after last year’s brief but devastating recession caused by the coronavirus. Jobless claims, an indicator of layoffs, had been falling nearly continuously for about a year, and by the end of last year they slipped below the pre-pandemic average of roughly 220,000 per week.
Economists expect the claims to revert to those low levels as virus infections decline, a trend already evident in regions where Omicron infections were first detected.
After a rise in cases along the East Coast toward the end of 2021, the seven-day moving average of new daily COVID-19 cases across the country has fallen by about 25% since January 12, according to Johns Hopkins University data. However, the seven-day moving average of COVID-19 deaths has risen notably, from under 1,800 per day to roughly 2,300 per day over the past two weeks.
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