(Washington) Weekly jobless claims remained unchanged in the United States last week, at a still very low level as the country now faces a labor shortage.
From December 12 to 18, 205,000 people registered as unemployed to receive an allowance, as in the previous week, for which the data was revised downward, according to Labor Department figures released Thursday.
Analysts had expected 206,000 registrations.
Unemployment registrations have, for several weeks, returned to an even lower level than before the pandemic. In early December, they even fell to their lowest level since 1969.
The United States is indeed experiencing a labor shortage, linked in particular to the many early retirements that the country experienced with the pandemic. Employers are therefore very cautious about layoffs, for fear of not finding staff, especially during the busy holiday season.
However, the four-week average goes up a bit, and stands at 206,250 (+2750 compared to the previous four-week average).
In total, 2.1 million people received unemployment benefit in early December, 320,452 less than the previous week, and a far cry from the 21 million beneficiaries in the country at the same time last year.