US unemployment claims remain high

[WASHINGTON] New claims for unemployment benefits remained high last week, the US government reported Thursday, the latest evidence that the pandemic-racked economy still has a lot of lost ground to make up heading into a new year.

A total of 922,000 workers filed initial claims for state benefits during the final week of 2020, the Labor Department said, while another 161,000 new claims were filed under a federal pandemic jobless programme. Neither figure is seasonally adjusted. On a seasonally adjusted basis, new state claims totalled 787,000.

The labour market has improved since the coronavirus pandemic broke out and closed down the economy. But of the more than 22 million jobs that disappeared in the spring, 10 million remain lost.

With a recently enacted US$900 billion relief package that includes an extension of federal unemployment benefits, most of the unemployed can at least look forward to more financial help.

Still, "this winter is going to be very difficult," said Kathy Bostjancic, chief US financial economist at Oxford Economics. "We're seeing overall economic momentum is slowing, and that feeds through to the labour market." "Employers are very cautious about rehiring at the same time they have had to increase layoffs," Ms Bostjancic said, "but the resurgence of the virus is really the main culprit here." A fuller picture of December employment will come Friday when the Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report, and most analysts are expecting minor payroll gains - or even the first net loss since April.

NYTimes