New jobless claims unexpectedly rise for the 2nd week in a row

The number of Americans filing new jobless claims has once again risen and come in higher than expected.

The Labor Department on Wednesday said 778,000 Americans filed new jobless claims last week, up 30,000 from the week prior. This was higher than the 733,000 claims economists had been expecting, CNBC reports.

Last week, the number of new jobless claims had also risen by about 31,000 claims, more than economists anticipated. After the latest uptick in claims reported on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports this was the "first back-to-back increase since July."

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New cases of COVID-19 have been climbing in the United States, which has prompted numerous states to implement new restrictions, and the increase in jobless claims was a "sign the nationwide surge in virus cases was starting to weigh on the labor-market recovery," The Wall Street Journal writes.

"COVID is driving the bus on the economy," KPMG LLP chief economist Constance Hunter told the Journal, "and we're going to have some hairpin turns until we get to the nice, straight open road of the postvaccine world."