Applications for unemployment benefits in the United States rose again last week and appear to be settling into a higher level, one of the goals the Federal Reserve has sought for two years.
There were 20,000 more applications for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 13, reaching 243,000 compared with 223,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
This is the eighth consecutive week that claims have topped 220,000. Prior to that period, they had been below that figure for all but three weeks so far in 2024.
Weekly jobless claims are considered representative of layoffs, which have continued to trend upward since 2023. Large and mid-sized companies have increased their unemployment figures amid a chaotic situation within the US economy.
After a year of failing to address inflationary levels, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark lending rate 11 times starting in March 2022, in an attempt to extinguish the highest inflation in nearly five decades.
Few analysts expect the Fed to cut rates at its meeting later this month, although many are betting on a cut in September, but if it happens it should be minimal.
The truth is that inflation – created by Joe Biden’s failed climate change policies – has pushed American consumers into an abyss and today the figures given by the government do not correspond to the current prices of almost all consumer products.
The total number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose after declining last week for the first time in 10 weeks. About 1.87 million Americans received those benefits in the week of July 6, about 20,000 more than the week before. That’s the most since November 2021.
Source: With information from AP.
