Unemployment Claims on Thursday

Still low, but up slightly:

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week, but remained near historically low levels as employers held on to workers in a tight labor market.

Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, rose to 185,000 during the week that ended on April 9, compared with a revised 167,000 the week prior, the Labor Department said Thursday. New claims had fallen to the lowest point since 1968 in early April.

The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility, rose to 172,250.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving payments from state unemployment programs, decreased slightly to 1.48 million for the week ended April 2 from the previous week’s total. Continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag, are also trending near the lowest levels in more than 50 years.

The economy does not feel like this, but my gut is famously bad at such things.

I ran the numbers this week, and with 80 million (at least) Americans having caught Covid, and about half of all Americans are a part of the workforce, so with a 10% long Covid rate, and evidence is that it’s closer to 40%, that would mean 4 million Americans unable to reenter the labor market because of disability, which would explain labor shortages in an economy that feels anemic.