Political | Process

 This week the U.S. crushed its previous record for cases, with new cases climbing by more than 1 million in a single day. 

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• While the new surge in cases could portend bad news for the labor market, it is buttressed by recent weeks of better-than-anticipated jobless claim reports.

• Last month new claims for unemployment hit the lowest level for initial claims in 52 years, a sign that layoffs are very rare as employers try hard to hold on to workers.

• “New jobless claims are up a bit in the latest week but remain close to the lowest levels in decades,” said Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s senior economic analyst. “This suggests workers can be reasonably confident about job security and an upbeat employment outlook for this year.”

• Thursday’s new numbers come after a worse-than-expected November jobs report. The economy added just 210,000 new jobs in November, much fewer than the half-million that were anticipated. Despite being worse than expected, the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, where it was in mid-2017.

• The unemployment rate is still higher than the ultra-low 3.5% level it was at prior to the pandemic.

SOURCE: WASHINGTONEXAMINER