I Slept Through This

For about the 5th or 6th time since I started blogging in 2007, I did not blog.I was completely wiped than evening.

So I missed commenting on Thursday's initial unemployment claims report, which hit another pandemic low.

Jobless claims continued a several-week slide to new pandemic lows, in a sign hiring is primed to strengthen as workers return to the labor market.

Worker applications for unemployment benefits fell to 473,000 last week from a revised 507,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims remain above pre-pandemic levels but are now at the lowest point since mid-March 2020, when the pandemic shut down the economy and triggered widespread joblessness.

The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility in the weekly numbers, also reached a new pandemic low of 534,000.

………

Higher vaccination rates, fiscal stimulus and easing business restrictions are converging to support stronger spending across the U.S. But job growth isn’t keeping pace. U.S. employers added a modest 266,000 jobs in April, far short of the one million that economists had forecast and the weakest monthly gain since January.

Many employers say they can’t find enough workers to meet surging demand, in turn limiting production. Economists cite several factors keeping workers on the sidelines, including individuals’ fear of contracting Covid-19, child-care burdens from school closures, and expanded unemployment benefits.

Though benefits applications are on a downward trend, the number of people claiming benefits each week through regular state programs remains elevated. So-called continuing claims have stagnated between 3.6 million and 4 million since March.

I think that a recovery is underway, the questions are whether it will involve the rest of us, as the 2009 recovery did not, whether we are opening up too soon, and whether new variants of Covid-19 will take us back to lock-down.