U.S. unemployment claims rise for second week

The delta variant of the coronavirus could be disrupting the job market, but analysts at Contingent Macro Advisors concluded that technical problems in processing the claims could also explain the recent rise in newly reported filings for unemployment benefits. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims rose nearly 5 percent from the previous week to about 351,000.

Is unemployment trending up? The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week swings, registered its sixth straight drop to a pandemic low of 336,000. The number still remains elevated. Before the virus tore through the economy in March 2020, it generally numbered about 220,000 new unemployment benefits requests per week.

Dig deeper: Read Tim Lamer’s reviews of four recent books about America’s economic challenges.