WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) US weekly jobless claims fell 13 percent last week to the lowest in three months, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, as snowstorms in the central and southern United States, particularly Texas, knocked out power and disrupted regular activity.
"In the week ending February 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 730,000, a decrease of 111,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 20,000 from 861,000 to 841,000," the department said in a news release.
The 13 percent drop brought weekly jobless claims to their lowest level since late November.
Storms and freezing temperatures in Texas and other states in the lower half of America suffered widespread power outages and disruptions last week. Media reports said officials were also investigating fraud filings in at least one state, Ohio, that could have resulted in adjustments.
Economists surveyed by US media had expected as many as 825,000 filings for last week. Some noted that claims numbers had been volatile the past two weeks, making it harder to get a read of unemployment trends amid the protracted COVID-19 crisis.
"Claims have sort of hit a floor and we're seeing this relatively high figure week in, week out," Justin Low, a commentator at ForexLive, said.
The United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April, at the height of business lockdowns forced by the coronavirus. At least 10 million of those jobs have not returned, data shows.
The US economy itself shrank 3.5 percent in 2020, after a 2.2 percent growth in 2019.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell told a Senate banking committee this week that the US economic outlook remained highly uncertain, with recovery appearing uneven and far from complete, despite progress in COVID-19 vaccinations. But Powell also said that notwithstanding the broader outlook, he expected gross domestic product growth to return to pre-pandemic levels by the first half of this year.
