Weekly unemployment claims rise in U.S

Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased in numbers unexpectedly last week, but the labor market is regaining its footing as there is a rise in vaccination speed leading more businesses to reopen.

The Labor Department said that the initial state unemployment benefits claims increased 45,000 to a seasonally adjusted 770,000 for the week ended March 13, from 725,000 in the prior week. Data for the prior week was revised to show 13,000 more applications received than previously reported.

Reuters Economists had polled a forecast of 700,000 applications in the latest week. Unemployment claims have lowered from a record 6.867 million in March 2020, but are still above their 665,000 peaks during the 2007-09 Great Recession. Claims should normally be in a 200,000 to 250,000 range in a healthy labor market.

1 million people have filed claims last week which includes a government-funded program for the self-employed, gig workers, and others who don’t qualify for state programs.

Claims have been altered by backlogs and deceitful applications. The four-week moving average of initial claims fell 16,000 to 746,250 last week, a four-month low.

Conrad DeQuadros, senior economic advisor at Brean Capital in New York said that it is virtually impossible to extract the signal from noise in the jobless claims data in the current environment with the claims data seemingly plagued by fraud.

The improving health situation along with pleasing monetary and fiscal policy has set the economy on course for its fastest growth rate since 1984. 

Other data on Thursday revealed that factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region is racing to its highest level in nearly 50 years in March.