The data from
the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for
unemployment was roughly in line with expectations 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 1,434,000 for
the week ended July 25. That brought the number of job losses over the past
nineteen weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to more
than 54.1 million.
Economists had
expected 1,450,000 new claims last week.
Claims for the
prior week were revised upwardly to 1,422,000 from the initial estimate of 1,416,000.
Meanwhile, the
four-week moving average of claims rose to 1,368,500 from an upwardly revised
1,362,000 in the previous week.
Continuing
claims increased to 17,018,000 million from a downwardly revised 16,151,000 in
the previous week.