By Alice Seeley
On July 21, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that applications for unemployment benefits rose by 7,000 to 250,000 in one week. This is the highest amount of claims seen in eight months.
The number was higher than predictions from economists polled by data firm FactSet, who expected the number of applications to be 242,000.
Over the past four weeks, the average weekly number of claims rose by 4,500 to 240,500. The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits rose by 51,000 to 1,384,000.
This is the highest number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits in over four months. However, this number is far below last year, when almost 12.5 million Americans were collecting unemployment benefits.
“The labor market is softening, but the change is so far gradual. The U.S. economy is cooling but is probably not in recession in July,” Bill Adams, the chief economist for Comerica Bank stated. “Between economic data and news reports, it’s clear that job losses are underway in the tech, mortgage finance, real estate brokerage, and big box retail sectors.”
The good news is that jobless claims are still close to pre-COVID numbers, and the unemployment rate is still at 3.6% for the fourth month in a row. According to data from the Department of Labor, there are two job openings for every unemployed American.
