New jobless claims decline to 793,000, but stay higher than expected

(Image credit: ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 11 February 2021

The number of Americans filing new jobless claims has declined, but once again remained high and come in worse than expected.

The Labor Department said Thursday 793,000 Americans filed new jobless claims last week, down 19,000 claims from the revised level of the previous week. Last week's number of claims was originally reported to be 779,000, but this was revised up to 812,000.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

The latest number of jobless claims comes after the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 49,000 jobs in January, which Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao said showed an improvement that was "sluggish as the pandemic continues to restrain the economic recovery." The U.S. unemployment rate in that report declined to 6.3 percent, though Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said this week the unemployment rate was closer to 10 percent in January "counting those who have left the labor force since last February as unemployed" and correcting a misclassification of "many" of unemployed people as employed.

Explore More

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox