The data from
the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for
unemployment was higher than expected last week as the U.S. continues to
grapple with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to
the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1,416,000 for
the week ended July 18. That brought the number of job losses over the past
eighteen weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to
nearly 52.7 million.
Economists had
expected 1,300,000 new claims last week.
Claims for the
prior week were revised upwardly to 1,307,000 from the initial estimate of 1,300,000.
Meanwhile, the
four-week moving average of claims fell to 1,360,250 from an upwardly revised
1,376,750 in the previous week.
Continuing
claims decreased to 16,197,000 million from a downwardly revised 17,304,000 in
the previous week.