The Rising US Unemployment Figure Delays Labour Market Recovery
Analysis Economics Market Overview

Rising US Unemployment Figure Delays Labour Market Recovery

The number of Americans that applied for employment benefits heightened at an unprecedented rate for the second week. The increase in the rate of unemployment shows that the expected labor market recovery is slowing down against expectations. 

The previous numbers of people who regularly claimed unemployment benefit reduced by 60,000 to 1.48 million last week from upwardly reviewed figure the week before as revealed by Labor Department data. The Group of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had projected 1.32 million preliminary claims.

Ongoing unemployment claims from a carefully monitored figure that records the total numbers of people claiming unemployment benefits, reduced more than the projected number to 19.5 million in the June 13th week.

US 4-Week Moving Average of Continuous Claims for Unemployment Insurance:

US 4-Week Moving Average of Continued Claims for jobless Insurance is at a present level of 20.42M, and this is a reduction from the 20.75M the previous week and an increase from 1.680M last year. This shows an alteration of -1.59% from the previous week figure and 1.12K% last year.

Post Lockdown Laid Off Creates Additional Unemployment

While business gradually opened their doors after lockdown and rehire some of their previous workers, a few more people are laid off beside the shutdown of the service sector. This second wave of layoff results from businesses reconsidering and adjusting the number of employees they need.  

While U.S. stocks wavered on Thursday as a result, the Treasuries and the USD soared higher due to news about increasing numbers of buyers for durable goods and business equipment that resulted in an overall figure greater than the May forecast.

The Number Of Unemployment Claims Post COVID-19 Lockdown Reduced Less Than Projected

The number of jobless claims that aren’t slowing down as forecasted indicates a slower recovery rate than anticipated from the deep labor-market recession round the country. Although many states have removed the lockdown restrictions placed on businesses and some businesses have started to receive their regular numbers of customers, large states still experiences low patronage compared to pre-epidemic levels.

The majority of jobless claims come from the biggest U.S. companies. These companies layoff some of their previous employees while adjusting to the current economic situation and battle with a change in consumers’ behavior due to the epidemic. Macy’s Inc. for instance, publicized on June 25th that it will lay off 3,900 corporate and management employees to minimize cost as the company struggles to adjust to the aftermath of COVID-19 on the retail industry.

Except the job market shows a faster recovery, the V-shape recovery” will show “only an early bounce. After that, economic activity will begin to stabilize. 

US preliminary Claims for Jobless Insurance is at a present level of 1.48M, which is a reduction from 1.54M last week and an increase from  the 217000.0 last year. It shows an alteration of -3.90% from last week and 582.0% last year.

Nevertheless, economists commonly anticipate nonstop progress in the labor market. The government’s recurrent employment report forecast showed that employers integrated three million employees to workforces in June, after the 2.5 million employees in May. Without adjustment, numbers of preliminary claims reduced by 6,000, and this is the least number of claims since the COVID-19 crisis. 

Rates Of Initial Unemployment Claims Across US States 

The number of unemployment claims in California last week was the highest. The state recorded a 45,900 non-adjusted claim increase. Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Kansas, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Washington equally recorded a significant increase. The state that recorded the most claim reduction is Oklahoma. It recorded a 35,600 fall. There were also big falls in Kentucky, Oregon, and New York.

Texas may see some surprising progress with a 5500 fall in preliminary claims last week. Governor Greg Abbott on the 25th of June stopped the second phase of economy re-opening in the US second largest state due to increasing numbers of new Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations.

Another quote that records overall unemployment claims across different programs, including the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that is targeted on self-employed and contract workers – surged to a non-adjusted number of 30.6 million in June 6th week. The unemployment data include 11 million PUA benefit claims as opposed to 18.3 million in recurrent state benefit claims.

Preliminary PUA claims made a total of 728,120 in the June 20th week, which is a fall from 770,920 from the claims recorded the week before. 

The data from the Commerce Department on Thursday indicated that increasing numbers of sales of durable goods increased by 15.8% in May. That figure was the highest for the past 6 years because the reopening of the economy across the country boosted demand for a wide collection of products and equipment.

Similarly, a different report indicated that the number of products exported outside the US in May was lowest the country ever had for more than 10 years. Equally, the number of products imported into the country got reduced.