It’s Jobless Friday!!!

Initial unemployment claims have risen by 55,000 to 286,000.

It could be just a blip from Omicron, but we’ll find out more when the January jobs numbers comes out.

The number is not good, even by the standards of the before times:

Filings for jobless claims increased at the start of the year as businesses contended with Omicron-related disruptions and adjusted workforces following the holiday hiring season.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, rose by 55,000 to 286,000 during the week that ended Jan. 15, following an increase in the week ended Jan. 8. The four-week average, which smooths out volatility, was 231,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week’s average.

The number of new claims is the highest since October, but economists cautioned that fluctuations in the numbers are likely in the coming weeks. While the surge in Covid-19 cases is disrupting businesses and leading economists to mark down 2022 growth forecasts, few expect it to change the fundamentals of a labor market with little slack and red-hot demand for workers.

I still wonder how much of these numbers are an artifact of statistical adjustments which still date back to before the pandemic.

Also, there is this:

The claims increase came as almost 8.8 million adults in the U.S. in early January said they couldn’t work because they were sick with or taking care of someone sick with Covid-19, according to a Census Bureau survey. That is by far the highest such figure in the “household pulse” survey, exceeding 6.6 million recorded last January.

Omicron is a harsh mistress.