Jobless claims rise for third straight week after 6.2 million lose federal benefits
By Sylvan Lane - 09/30/21 09:02 AM EDT
New applications for jobless benefits rose for the third consecutive week after the expiration of federal pandemic unemployment aid earlier this month, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
Seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 362,000 in the week ending Sept. 25, a gain of 11,000 applications from the previous week’s total of 351,000.
Claims fell slightly without seasonal adjustments, declining to 298,255 before the Labor Department factored in an expected decline of 18,940 applications.
The persistent rise of jobless claims, which are volatile and subject to state processing errors, over September could signal lingering trouble for the labor market following the start of the delta variant surge in late July.
The steep increase in COVID-19 cases driven by the variant walloped the labor market and consumer confidence in August. Employment growth fell from a gain of more than 1 million new jobs in July to just 235,000 last month, with sectors hit hardest by the onset of the pandemic seeing almost no improvement.
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/574639-jobless-claims-rise-for-third-straight-week-after-62-million-lose-federal
