Continued Claims for Unemployment Benefits Reach Highest Level Since 2021
The number of Americans who have filed a continued claim for unemployment benefits has reached its highest level since Nov. 6, 2021.
Insured unemployment reached 1,972,000 during the week ended Aug. 9, a figure that was 30,000 higher than the previous week’s level and the highest since the 2,041,000 recorded on Nov. 6, 2021, the Department of Labor said in a Thursday (Aug. 21) press release.
The insured unemployment rate for the week ended Aug. 9 stood at 1.3%, unchanged from the previous week, according to the release.
The insured unemployment number includes Americans who already filed an initial claim for unemployment insurance, experienced a week of unemployment and then filed a continued claim, per the release.
The DOL said in the release that “continued claims reflect a good approximation of the current number of insured unemployed workers filing for UI benefits. The count of U.S. continued weeks claimed is also a good indicator of labor market conditions.”
The increase in continued claims signals that the labor market is slowing and that unemployed Americans are having greater difficulty finding a new job, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The DOL data confirms Americans’ belief that jobs are harder to find, Reuters reported Thursday.
The Conference Board found that 20% of employers said they will hire fewer workers this year. That figure is almost twice the rate of companies that planned to slow hiring at this point in 2024.
The preliminary results for August of the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers found that “consumers continue to expect both inflation and unemployment to deteriorate in the future.”
The DOL also reported Thursday that the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance increased by 11,000 during the week ended Saturday (Aug. 16). The total of 235,000 initial claims filed during the week was up from the previous week’s 224,000.
The number of initial claims exceeded the 225,000 expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg and those polled by Reuters. Both reports said the DOL’s findings provide further evidence of a slowdown in the labor market.
The four-week moving average of 226,250 was 4,500 higher than the previous week’s average of 221,750, according to the DOL release.
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