The number of American workers seeking state unemployment benefits last week blew by expectations to 965,000, a figure not seen since August 2020 and a historically high amount that points to a labor market plagued by the pandemic.
The Labor Department said in a Jan. 14 report (pdf) that the number of people who filed initial state benefit claims last week grew by 181,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 784,000. Economists polled by Reuters predicted the jobless claims number would tick up slightly to 795,000; the Labor Department’s report sent a ripple of surprise across the desks of experts.
