Initial jobless claims flat for the week
By Naomi Jagoda - 12/23/21 09:27 AM EST
Initial unemployment claims were unchanged last week, amid questions about the omicron variant’s impact on the job market, the Department of Labor (DOL) said Thursday.
Seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance were 205,000 for the week ending Dec. 18, the same level as the previous week’s revised figure, DOL said. Last week’s figure was in line with economists’ expectations.
The four-week moving average for claims rose slightly, from 203,500 to 206,250.
“With so much uncertainty now and the high level of concern about the Omicron variant, we’ll take stability when we can get it,” Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, said in a statement. “Fortunately, there’s no evidence in this data of a new wave of fresh job loss. New claims are only slightly above the lowest point in decades notched a couple of weeks ago.”
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/587077-initial-jobless-claims-flat-for-the-week
