Weekly jobless dip, total 260,000

Washington, Jan 27 (Prensa Latina) After three weeks in a row with increased requests for jobless benefits, the number of US citizens filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 260,000 till January 22, the Labor department reported on Thursday.

January 27, 2022
19:35

This figure represents 30,000 fewer requests, to account for 1.7 million people benefited amid a high number of infections with the Omicron.

Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, dipped for about a year and were below the pre-pandemic average of about 220,000 per week at the end of 2021.

According to experts, such requests should decrease to lower levels as coronavirus infections fall, which in fact occurs in regions where infections with the Omicron variant were first reported.

Labor Department considered this drop published on Thursday is an encouraging sign of a gradual wayout from the coronavirus-generated crisis.

According to statistics, the jobless rate in the United States dropped to 3.9% in December, bringing the country closer to pre-pandemic numbers, since many companies need to hire and are reluctant to lay off, in a context of shortage of workers.

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