A recent increase in the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits is expected to have steadied last week, showing the labor market is still healing at a time when more states bring back economic restrictions to address a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, have held in a historically high range of 700,000 to 800,000 since mid-October, more than three times their pre-pandemic average. They edged higher for two consecutive weeks in November, a possible sign that tougher virus restrictions might be affecting the labor market, but remain well below their late March peak of nearly seven million.
The Labor Department will publish the latest data at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Weekly claims data, which policy makers and investors have relied on throughout the pandemic for timely information about the labor market, came under scrutiny this week after a government watchdog said the data were flawed. The Government Accountability Office said states have provided inconsistent data to the Labor Department and incidents of fraud have distorted the numbers.
The Labor Department agreed to clarify how jobless claims are counted in the weekly jobless-claims report, but an agency spokeswoman said the department didn’t anticipate any changes in methodology.
