Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange on Monday on Wall Street in New York City. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
July 22 (UPI) — After weeks of steady declines, the number of workers in the United States who have filed new unemployment claims has again surpassed 400,000, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday.
The report said there were about 419,000 initial claims last week, well off most analysts’ estimates and the most for any week since May 15.
Most economists expected about 350,000 new claims.
Thursday’s report also revised up the previous week’s claims by 8,000.
The department noted 3.236 million continuing claims, which lag initial claims by a week. That figure is the lowest since March 2020.
States that saw the most new claims were Texas (10,100), New York (8,200), Pennsylvania (4,300), Tennessee (3,100) and Missouri (1,800). The largest decreases were seen in Georgia (5,300), Rhode Island (4,800), Kentucky (3,800) and Maryland (2,500).
The report said as of July 3, extended unemployment benefits were still available in Alaska, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Texas.