U.S. Jobless Claims Rose Last Week to 259,000

By BEN LEUBSDORF

Jan. 26, 2017

Claims have now remained below 300,000 for 99 consecutive weeks

WASHINGTON—The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remained at a historically low level consistent with a healthy U.S. labor market.

Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., increased by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 259,000 in the week ended Jan. 21, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 246,000 new claims last week. Claims for the week ended Jan. 14 were revised up to 237,000 from an earlier estimate of 234,000.

Despite choppiness over the past few months, jobless claims have now remained below 300,000 for 99 consecutive weeks. It has been the longest such streak since 1970, when the U.S. workforce and population were far smaller than they are today.

Data on unemployment applications can be volatile from week to week, and especially around holidays when seasonal adjustments are difficult; last week included Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A more stable measure, the four-week moving average of initial claims, fell by 2,000 last week to 245,500, which was its lowest level since November 1973.

The Labor Department said no special factors affected last week’s claims data.

The agency on Thursday also said continuing unemployment claims, reflecting benefits drawn by workers for longer than a week, rose by 41,000 to 2.1 million in the week ended Jan. 14. Data on continuing claims are released with a one-week lag.

The U.S. job market entered 2017 on solid footing. The unemployment rate in December was 4.7%, according to the Labor Department, and nonfarm employers added nearly 2.2 million jobs in 2016.

Signs of damage from the 2007-09 recession linger, however, included depressed employment among Americans in their prime working years compared with the prerecession trend.

On the whole, the unemployment rate and other indicators “support the view that the labor market has largely recovered from the severe downturn that occurred in the wake of the financial crisis,” Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen said in a speech last week.

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Remember Trump campaign promises:

• You are going to be sick of winning
• One million jobs on day one

What has happened we are already sick of losing

• The gas is going up
• The dollar is sliding
• Netherlands will support women abortions worldwide
• Women are protesting in major cities