US jobless claims of 184,000 least in five decades
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Joe Biden, who is facing multiple challenges, has something to cheer as weekly claims for unemployment benefits in the United States have dropped to a new, multi-decade low, reports the Labor Department.
The 184,000 claims last week, adjusted for seasonal swings, was the lowest level of initial claims since September 1969, when the figure stood at 182,000.
In preparation and in political experience, Biden is the most qualified US President in history and his first year in office has been consequential.
His fellow Democrats in Congress passed early in the year a huge $2 trillion Covid relief bill and last month passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill his predecessors couldn’t get to the finish line, Yahoo Finance reports.
The House of Representatives has passed a $2 trillion social welfare and green-energy package contained in the Build Back Better Bill and the Senate is firing on all cylinders to pass and get it to Biden’s table before the December vacation.
Yet Biden’s approval rating has dived south to 43 per cent amid historic 6.2 per cent inflation coupled with higher energy, food and rent costs straining family budgets.
Voters say they have not felt the positive impact of his legislative achievements. And the 2022 mid-term elections already loom large with Republicans creating obstacles on every front to sabotage the Democratic agenda.
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Silver lining of jobless claims
One silver lining is that the latest unemployment benefit claims figure was a lower count than economists had predicted, according to CNN.
It’s further proof that America’s jobs recovery is pushing ahead this winter, with employers vying for staff and workers having plenty of jobs to choose from.
Companies are still have a hard time keeping up with the buoyant demand for goods and services, not least because they are struggling to find workers.
As of October, the nation had 11 million jobs available and not enough people to fill them.
Meanwhile, 1.9 million Americans were receiving benefits under the various government program in the week ended November 20, accounted for mostly by regular state unemployment aid.
But according to Thursday’s Labor Department figures, claims actually rose by more than 60,000 to a total of 280,665 last week without the seasonal adjustments.
Pandemic effect
“Usually, it is not really worth discussing seasonals as the adjustment process is usually well calibrated and does a good job smoothing out the expected wiggles,” said Jefferies Money Market Economist Thomas Simons in a note to clients.
But the pandemic has complicated this a lot.
Last summer, when claims were still in the millions, the Labor Department made a change to its adjustment methodology. And it’s still using this new methodology now that claims are back to pre-pandemic levels, Simons told CNN.
On top of that, there is the holiday season.
Even though claims have declined steadily since September – dropping to an initial 52-year low in November – the holiday season, starting with Veteran’s Day and ending only with Martin Luther King Day in February, is a period of heightened volatility, according to Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics.
In spite of the volatility, Englund thinks the claims data suggest a strong jobs gain in December.