Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
91.5 Chapel Hill 88.9 Manteo 90.9 Rocky Mount 91.1 Welcome 91.9 Fayetteville 90.5 Buxton 94.1 Lumberton 99.9 Southern Pines 89.9 Chadbourn
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Jobless Claims Rose Slightly Last Week

There were 367,000 first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week, the Employment and Training Administration says.

The bottom line: This doesn't mark any significant change in the jobs market, especially considering the "4-week moving average was 375,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised average." That figure is a better measure of labor market trends.

What we've said in recent months remains true: "Claims have been stuck in a range between 350,000 and 400,000 for the past year and are running at a pace that underscores how the labor market appears to be only slowly improving."

Reuters reports that this week's numbers were slightly better than economists expected:

"Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 370,0000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, was unchanged at 375,000. It was the first time since December last year that the four-week average was unchanged. ...

"Despite fears of tighter fiscal policy next January, there is little sign that companies are responding by laying off workers on a wide scale."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Stories From This Author