US jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week

The US Labor Department said today that US jobless claims rose by 61,000 to 719,000 seasonally adjusted for the week ending March 27, and analysts ’expectations were that US jobless claims will record 680,000 applications last week.

The government reviewed the unemployment claims data from 2016, which showed that unemployment claims reached a record number of 6.149 million in April 2020 instead of 6.867 million in March 2020. Other data from outside recruiting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas showed that planned layoffs by US-based firms fell 11% to 30,603 in March, the lowest number since July 2018.