After three consecutive weeks of unemployment claims that appeared to rise in tandem with omicron, fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits for the second week in a row.
Jobless claims fell by 23,000 to 238,000 last week, from 261,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported this morning.
The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, rose by nearly 8,000 to 255,000. It was the fifth straight week of increases for the average, mirroring a surge in COVID-19 cases in parts of the country.
A winter spike in infections fueled by the omicron variant stymied what had been a strong comeback from last year’s short but devastating coronavirus recession. Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, had fallen mostly steadily for about a year and late last year dipped below the pre-pandemic average of around 220,000 a week. Economists expect claims to return to those lower levels as the virus fades, which is already happening in areas first hit with omicron. See the report.
