US jobless claims rise slightly to 373,000

WASHINGTON: After hitting their lowest level since the pandemic began, new filings for US jobless benefits rose slightly last week, government data said Thursday.

The Labor Department reported 373,000 new seasonally adjusted claims made in the week ending July 3. That was 2,000 more than the previous week's upwardly revised level of 371,000 -- the lowest reading since the Covid-19 crisis sent them soaring in March 2020.

Another 99,001 people, not seasonally adjusted, filed for benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for freelance workers not normally eligible for aid, the data said.

US jobless claims fall to 364,000 lowest since March 2020: govt

Despite the marginal increase, the trend for new claims is still falling, Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said. He predicted it will continue to do so as "the tightness of the labor market" keeps employers from laying off staff.

However, Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics said the "total number of individuals on government assistance remains surprisingly high in an economy that is normalizing."

There were more than 14.2 million people receiving some form of benefits as of the week ended June 19, according to the report, though that was less than during the worst of the pandemic's business disruptions last year.

"Overall, we see weekly filings declining over coming weeks as job growth picks up, although at least some of the improvement will be due to states suspending federal support measures," Farooqi wrote in an analysis.