The number of American citizens applying for unemployment benefits rose humongous-ly last week even though the market is rebounding from the coronavirus recession.
According to the Labor Department, the number of Americans who made claims for jobless benefits rose by 28,000 making it a total of 222,000.
The average of four weeks did see a downslide since the pandemic. Even though jobless claims are on a rise, the overall number is less than what was recorded during the coronavirus pandemic days.
Overall, approximately 2 million Americans are at the moment receiving jobless benefits.
The federal government had announced that a supplemented state unemployment insurance program would be needed after the payment of an extra $300 per week which will benefit the gig workers especially the population which has been without work for more than six months in a row.
The jobless population peaked at around 33 million in June 2020 when the pandemic was in its full swing.
The job market started to make a rebound in the spring of 2020 when Americans were asked to stay at home for their own health safety and the business hours were cut short.
More than 22 million jobs were slashed by different employees in the March and April of last year.
Now, when the market has started to stretch out new employment, there has been a scarcity of labor. The increasing inflation has forced people to demand more wages. Companies are now seen complaining about not finding employees for the job openings.
A record 10.4 million new openings entered the job market in Septeber 2021.
Workers are in high demand and businesses are reluctant to reduce their workforce amid persisting shortages,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High-Frequency Economics. “Our base case was that supply (of workers) would gradually return as the cushion from savings diminished. However, renewed health concerns are a downside risk that may prevent people from returning to the workforce over coming months.”
