Unemployment claims fell sharply last week despite brutal winter storms that swept Texas and other parts of the south, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The first unemployment insurance application amounted to 730,000 for the week ended Feb. 20, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 845,000.
This total represented a substantial decrease compared to the 841,000 of the previous week, a figure that was revised below 20,000.
Despite the decline, the total, the lowest since Nov. 28, was still well above anything the U.S. labor market had seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continued claims also fell, falling from 101,000 to 4.42 million, the lowest since March 21, 2020, but also well above anything the labor market had seen before the pandemic.
The decline probably did not take into account those expected to present due to the storms.
“The sharp drop in unemployment claims is probably because people in the states hardest hit by last week’s huge storm, especially Texas, have more to do than make unemployment claims,” Ian Shepherdson wrote. chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “We expect a rebound next week. It looks like the trend is about flat, but we hold the view that claims will soon start to go down, slowly at first, but then faster, as the reopening of the economy accelerates in the future. ‘April and May. “
Other economic reports on Thursday morning showed that spending on long-term goods jumped 3.4% in title and 1.4% without transportation, both well above Wall Street estimates.
In addition, the second reading of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2020 showed an increase of 4.1%, one tenth of a percentage point compared to the initial reading, but slightly below the Dow Jones estimate of 4, 2%.
The fall in the main number of unemployment claims masked continued pressures on the labor market.
Although the overall figure declined, the records of people who submitted pandemic-related programs continued to rise, with just over a million more claims for the pandemic emergency program, which offset those usual benefits. of which have been exhausted.
In all, there were just over 19 million Americans receiving some compensation as of Feb. 6, an increase of more than 700,000 from the previous week.
More recent data show, however, that demands are increasing in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, which provides benefits to those who would not normally be eligible. During the weeks of February 13-20, more than 964,000 Americans applied to the program.
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