This past Thursday, the Labor Department issued a report stating that the number of jobless claims in America is the lowest it has been since March 1970. Considering that in just a week from now will mark two years since the Covid-19 lockdowns began in the U.S., such a report is great news. Although scares with the Omicron variant earlier this year had resulted in spikes in jobless claims, but now those claims are back on a downward trend. Thomas Simons, a market money economist at Jeffries, predicts that jobless claims will continue to fall, although perhaps not in a linear week-by-week fashion. However, despite this decrease in joblessness claims, America’s economy still does not quite yet reflect its pre-pandemic robustness. Compared to February 2020, as of January 2022, the U.S. is still short 2.9 million jobs. The bounce back in America’s economy is strong, and the falling rates of joblessness claims are a great indicator of the work that the government has done to provide jobs for the American people. The gain in jobs this past January far outscored estimated made by economists, who were hesitant due to spikes in the Omicron variant.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/economy/unemployment-claims-coronavirus?utm_source=business_ribbon
It is very interesting to see jobless claims be the lowest since the 1970's especially since the pandemic is still in effect. It is also very interesting to see that even though employment is up, the economy still hasn't recovered post-covid.
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