The number of claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly in the United States in the penultimate week of 2021. It is thus at this period the lowest since 1969.
The number of new applications for work reached 198 thousand in the US in the penultimate week of 2021. That’s eight thousand less than the week before and at the same time goes the lowest figure since 1969 in that period. Experts estimated that the number of new applications would reach 208 thousand, so this is a positive surprise that clearly signals that the US labour market has almost completely recovered from the coronavirus crisis.
The unemployment rate, which has reached 4.2 percent, the fewest in the past 21 months, also indicates this. On the eve of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the US unemployment rate was only just below the four per cent level. Thus, current unemployment is very likely to be at a level that corresponds to full employment. I mean, a state where everyone looking for a job will find a job.
The current situation in the US labour market thus records a gradual tightening of monetary policy by the US central bank. She has already left her governor Jerome Powell through the mouth of its governor, that she will indeed do so.
