Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 207,000 in the week ending Jan. 1, the Labor Department said. Economists expected 197,000 orders by the last week of 2021.
In the previous week, requests were reduced to 200,000, according to the federal agency.
Applications tend to increase during the holiday season, but an acute worker shortage has altered that seasonal pattern, leading to lower application numbers in recent weeks. At the end of November there were 10.6 million job openings.
“Some businesses temporarily close around the holiday season, causing an increase in claims for unemployment benefits (…) As the shortage of workers has been a persistent problem and employment levels are already lower than expected. desired, this effect has been much less during the recent holiday season, “said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup in New York.
Excluding weekly volatility, the job market adjusts as applications have fallen from the all-time high of 6,149 million hit in early April 2020.
Minutes from the December Federal Reserve (Fed) monetary policy meeting showed that the monetary authorities considered the labor market to be “very tight.”
According to the minutes, the Fed may have to raise interest rates earlier than expected and start reducing its asset holdings overall to control high inflation.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx