Tomorrow’s report from the Labor Department will show 815,000 American workers filed initial claims for unemployment in the week ended December 12, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
That would be an improvement from the 850,000 new claims filed in the prior week but it would extend the break of the seven-week stretch where new claims stayed under 800,000. The prior week’s total of 850,000 was the first increase since August. Before the coronavirus pandemic initial claims were averaging only 25% of the recent 800,000 a week rate.
Economists expect continuing claims to drop slightly to 5.7 million workers for the week ended on December 5 from the 5.757 million in the prior week.
The Department of Labor is set to release its weekly report on new jobless claims Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. New York time.
