US Unemployment Claims at 350,000... Slight Increase After 5 Weeks

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The U.S. Department of Labor reported on the 26th (local time) that the number of new unemployment benefit claims for the week of August 15?21 totaled 353,000.

This represents an increase of 4,000 claims from the previous week, marking the first rise in five weeks. It slightly exceeded the expert forecast of 350,000 compiled by Bloomberg News.

The recent rise in COVID-19 cases due to the spread of the Delta variant is analyzed to have somewhat negatively impacted the employment market recovery.

Major U.S. companies, considering the spread of the Delta variant, are postponing plans to return to the office one after another and are taking emergency measures such as mandating mask-wearing and vaccination.

The number of continuing unemployment benefit claims, which are filed for at least two weeks, slightly decreased to 2.9 million compared to the previous week.

In the U.S., over 22 million jobs disappeared during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in March?April last year, but a rapid recovery followed, restoring 16.7 million jobs. However, the number of jobs remains 5.7 million short of pre-pandemic levels.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.