Jobless claims rose for the second straight week, to 778,000, a sign the nationwide surge in virus cases was starting to weigh on the labor-market recovery.
Claims haven’t risen for two consecutive weeks since July. Worker filings for unemployment insurance are down sharply from a peak of nearly seven million in late March. But they remain higher than in any previous recession—the pre-pandemic peak was 695,000 in 1982—for records tracing back to 1967.
Unemployment filings can be more volatile around the holidays, due to workweek changes that can cause seasonal-adjustment anomalies. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly variation, increased by 5,000 to 748,500, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
Increases in jobless claims were widespread across states. Some of the states with sharp increases in virus cases, including Minnesota, Ohio and Illinois, saw a large rise in claims last week.
Other data released Wednesday showed the broader economic recovery continued in recent months. Orders of durable, or long-lasting goods, rose 1.3% in October. The Commerce Department said that its second reading of gross domestic product growth in the third quarter was unchanged from the initial estimate, at a 33.1% annual rate, or 7.4% over the prior quarter, while U.S. company earnings picked up strongly. The agency releases another report on spending and incomes later Wednesday morning.
