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The consumer checks from President Biden's emergency aid package have noticeably boosted consumption
Photo: Gary Hershorn / Getty Images
The number of initial jobless claims in the US has fallen surprisingly significantly.
A total of 684,000 Americans applied for state support last week, almost 100,000 fewer than in the previous week, the Department of Labor in Washington announced on Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters had only expected a decline to 730,000 applications.
Nevertheless, a total of 18.9 million people continue to receive unemployment benefits, compared with 18.2 million in the previous week.
The bottom line was that around ten million jobs were lost in the United States in the corona pandemic.
About a third of these beneficiaries are in expanded government assistance programs, which means they have been unemployed for at least six months.
The long-term unemployed are typically more difficult to integrate into the labor market, even when the economy recovers.
Biden's $ 1,400 checks fuel consumption
The economy seems to emerge from the corona crisis with renewed vigor: Spending is increasing, production is growing, and employers are hiring new employees.
The number of new hires rose 379,000 in February - more than double the number in January.
The surge in spending may also be due to the $ 1,400 adult checks for most adults from Biden's emergency package: Credit card data from JPMorgan Chase showed that consumer spending skyrocketed last week as the checks began to be paid.
The US Federal Reserve (Fed) expects the unemployment rate to fall to 4.5 percent by the end of the year and to fall to 3.9 percent in 2022.
At the same time, the US gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase by 6.5 percent this year.
caw / AP / Reuters