It’s Jobless Thursday!

And initial unemployment claims rose to 230,000.

You gotta figure that the explosion of the Omicron variant of Corona virus is starting to slow things down:

Filings for jobless claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 230,000 last week, an increase of 23,000, as a tight U.S. labor market has kept applications near pre-pandemic lows for the past two months.

The increase in the Jan. 8 week came as employers dealt with workers calling in sick because of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The four-week moving average for last week edged higher, the Labor Department said Thursday, to 210,750 but remains close to the lowest levels on record. Meanwhile, continuing claims, which provide an approximation of the number of people receiving benefits, fell by nearly 200,000 to 1.6 million in the week ended Jan. 1, the most recent reading for those figures.

Economists expect the surge in cases from the Omicron variant to have a limited impact on businesses, keeping the tight labor market in place.

Yes, the economists are hoping for a recession and austerity, because real men hurt poor people.

I do not know where it’s going, but I do know that the every serious people desperately want to hurt poor people.