Jan. 7, 2022—Jobless claims in the U.S. rose by 7,000 last week to 207,000, but they still remain at historically low levels.
According to a report from the Associated Press, the number of claims still remains below pre-pandemic levels, which suggests the job market is remaining strong.
The four-week claims average sat just below 205,000 last week. That indicates the "highly transmissible" omicron variant has not triggered major layoffs or shaken the economy so far.
“Assuming any layoffs related to Omicron are limited amid tight labor market conditions, we expect initial claims to continue to hover around the (200,000) mark,″ Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics, said in the report.
U.S. employers posted 10.6 million job openings in November, which is the fifth highest monthly total dating back to 2000.
