WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2021) Some 965,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, up 23 percent from the previous week, as the US job market's struggle under the coronavirus pandemic intensified into the start of 2021, Labor Department data showed on Thursday.
"In the week ending January 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 965,000," the department said in a news release. It said claims rose in the previous week to January 2 to 784,000 from a previously published 787,000. That brought the latest week's claims up by 181,000, or 23 percent. Economists polled by US media forecast 789,000 claims for the week ended January 9.
