Initial claims for US unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time since April, a sign the recovery in the labor market from last year's recession may prove to be uneven amid challenges such as clogged supply chains and new Covid-19 variants.
Initial claims for state benefits rose to 412,000 in the week ended 12 June from 375,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said today. The latest number follows six weeks of consecutive declines in claims, which had notched their lowest levels since Covid-19-related restrictions began forcing mass layoffs in March 2020.
The US labor market has been steadily recovering from last year's Covid-19-induced recession, the deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Still, the recession appears to have been short-lived, and the Federal Reserve yesterday raised its outlook for the US economy to 7pc growth this year, from a prior 6.5pc forecast.
Fed officials signaled no change in their unemployment forecast at 4.5pc in the fourth quarter, compared with a monthly 5.8pc in May. The unemployment rate rose as high as 14.8pc in April 2020, the nadir of the Covid-19-related recession. Levels of employment remain about 7.5mn lower than in February 2020, prior to the pandemic.
By Robert Willis
