The unemployment picture is not getting any better. My opinion is that small businesses continue to close, and large businesses continue to restructure. Overall, many employers appear to be very cautious on hiring.
According to Marketwatch, “Initial jobless claims totaled 965,000 for the week ended Jan. 9, marking the highest level since August. Consensus economists were looking for a print of 789,000, after the prior week’s revised 784,000 new claims.” This is a huge miss, and to make matters worse the number of continuing claims for unemployment stands at 5.271 million people. (These numbers are seasonally adjusted. According to the Department of Labor report, the unadjusted number totaled 1,151,015). By comparison, the number of people applying for unemployment insurance a year ago was 207,000. In other words almost a year after the beginning of the pandemic, there are almost five times as many people filing for initial unemployment claims as in the previous year.