It's Jobless Thursday!

Initial unemployment claims rose by ten thousand to 322,000 last week.

It should be interesting over the next 4-6 weeks.  That's when the effect, if any, of the withdrawal of pandemic assistance.

There is also the effect of the increases in Covid cases over the past few weeks:

Jobless claims rose slightly last week but remained near a pandemic low, as layoffs stabilize amid an economic slowdown tied to rising coronavirus cases.

Initial unemployment claims rose to 332,000 last week from a pandemic low of 312,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Layoffs due to Hurricane Ida, which hit Louisiana at the end of August, appeared to contribute to the small claims increase, economists said.

The four-week moving average for claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell to 335,750, the lowest level since March 2020. More broadly, claims have trended lower since mid-July, a sign employers are holding on to workers even though the Delta variant has contributed to a rise in coronavirus cases and slowed U.S. economic growth.

………

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of individuals receiving benefits, fell to 2.67 million in the week ending Sept. 4, a pandemic low. The decline in continuing claims signals some unemployed workers are leaving the unemployment rolls for new jobs.

………

For many Americans, Sept. 6 marked the expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits, such as a $300 weekly supplement to regular state benefits that was included in government pandemic aid. About half of U.S. states had opted to end their participation earlier this summer.

I have no clue as to how all of this will shake out.