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Updated: July 23, 2020

American unemployment claims are on the rise again for the first time in 4 months

By Anneken Tappe, CNN Business

America's jobless crisis is far from over. Thursday's Department of Labor report hammered that point home: Another 1.4 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, marking the first increase in initial claims in 16 weeks.

The weekly first-time claims peaked at 6.9 million in the last week of March and feel continuously until last week, when the trend reversed. Economists had predicted claims to remain steady at 1.3 million, the same amount as in last week's report.

Nearly four months after the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the health of Americans, their economy and their labor market, the upswing in economic data it tapering off.

Stripping out seasonal adjustments, the number of initial claims is slightly lower than the adjusted number, but still rounds up to 1.4 million. During normal times, the seasonal adjustments help smooth the data, but during the pandemic it has been less helpful.

On top of regular claims for unemployment benefits, nearly 1 million people across 49 states applied for pandemic unemployment assistance, a program Congress rolled out as part of the government's Covid response. It provides benefits to workers who aren't typically eligible, such as freelancers and the self-employed. The program stands to expire at the end of the year.

A resurgence in infections and a rollback of reopening plans in several states is making it difficult for people to re-enter the labor force following the pandemic lockdown.

Some news was less dire. Continued claims, which count people who have applied for benefits for at least two consecutive weeks, slipped to 16.2 million, down by more than 1 million from the week prior. The continued claims number trails the first-time applications by one week. So an uptick in the continued number over the next few weeks could be a bad sign for the job market recovery.

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