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Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a
seasonally adjusted 779,000 for the week ended Jan. 30, compared
to 812,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on
Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 830,000
applications in the latest week.
Jobless claims remain above their 665,000 peak from during the
2007-09 Great Recession, but well below a record 6.867 million
in last March when the pandemic hit the United States' shores.
Part of the elevation in claims reflects people re-applying for
benefits after the government in late December renewed a $300
unemployment supplement until March 14 as part of a package
worth nearly $900 billion in additional pandemic relief.
Though January was the worst month since the onset of the
pandemic, the decline in economic activity leveled off in the
second half of the month amid signs of a peak in the recent
coronavirus wave.
Data from Homebase, a payroll scheduling and tracking company,
showed its measure of employees at work flattened out over the
last two weeks of January, pausing the decline observed from
December into January.
Other data on Thursday from global outplacement firm Challenger,
Gray & Christmas showed planned job cuts announced by U.S.-based
employers rose only 3.3% to 79,552 in January.
Last week's claims data has no bearing on Friday's closely
watched employment report for January as it falls outside the
survey period, which was in the middle of the month. Still, the
signs of stability in other labor market measures support
expectations that hiring rebounded in January after the economy
shed jobs in December for the first time in eight months.
According to a Reuters poll of economists payrolls likely
increased by 50,000 jobs in January after declining by 140,000
in December.
Hopes that the economy created jobs last month were boosted by
reports on Wednesday showing rebounds in private payrolls and
services industry employment in January. A survey this week also
showed manufacturers hired more workers in January.
But some economists are bracing for a second straight month of
job losses in January. The Conference Board's survey last week
showed consumers' perceptions of labor market conditions
deteriorated further in January.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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