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First-time jobless claims remain elevated

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Initial jobless claims declined to 900,000 for the week ending Jan. 16, down from 965,000 the week before but well above the pre-pandemic high established in 1982.

Roughly 423,000 people applied for first-time federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which implies that more than 1.3 million people applied for some form of unemployment insurance as the pandemic intensified.

Continuing claims stand at 5.04 million, according to the data released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The total number on individuals receiving unemployment insurance benefits declined to 15.9 million from 18.4 million.

This is primarily a function of people exhausting their benefits. Expect this data to be quite volatile because of seasonal factors and once new eligibility criteria is put into place.

For more information on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.

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About Joseph Brusuelas

@JoeBrusuelas

Joe Brusuelas, “chief economist to the middle market,” is the preeminent voice championing issues and policies facing midsize companies in the United States and around the world. An award-winning economist, Brusuelas has more than 20 years’ experience analyzing U.S. monetary policy, labor markets, fiscal policy, international finance, economic indicators and the condition of the U.S. consumer.

A member of the Wall Street Journal’s forecasting panel and the UCLA Anderson School of Management's Board of Directors, Brusuelas regularly briefs members of Congress and other senior officials regarding the impacts of federal policy on the middle market and the factors by which middle market executives make business decisions. He also frequently offers his insights on the U.S., Canadian and global economies in the financial media. In 2020, he was named one of the 100 most influential economists by Richtopia. In December 2023, Brusuelas and the economics team were recognized on Bloomberg's list of Best Bond Forecasters after correctly predicting where the benchmark Treasury would end the year.

Before joining RSM in 2014, Brusuelas spent four years as a senior economist at Bloomberg L.P. and the Bloomberg Briefs newsletter group, where he co-founded the award-winning Bloomberg Economic Brief. Earlier in his career, he was a director at Moody's Analytics covering the U.S. and global economies for the Dismal Scientist website. He also served as chief economist at Merk Investments L.L.C. and chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal.

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