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The numbers: Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week to a one-month high in what largely appears to be a case of California catching up on a backlog of claims.
Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 16,000 to 351,000 in the week ended Sept. 18, the government said Thursday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had estimated new claims would total 320,000.
Earlier in the month new jobless claims had tumbled to a pandemic-era low of 312,000. They are now about 125,000 above precrisis levels, however.
New jobless claims filed through a temporary federal program that paid extra unemployment benefits slid to 15,162 from 23,037. The federal program expired on Sept. 6, however, and it’s unclear if any of those filers will actually get any money.
Read: White House tells states they can keep paying extra jobless benefits
Big picture: The U.S. economy has a lot of demand for labor. What it lacks is enough people who want to work.
The economy has grown rapidly since early this year and businesses are eager to fill a record number of job openings. Their biggest problem is finding enough qualified workers.
Read: Half of all small businesses can’t find enough workers to fill open jobs
It’s so hard to hire that companies are very reluctant to fire any one, a chief reason why jobless claims have been on the wane.
The loss of benefits for millions of people could stunt the economy’s momentum, analyst say, but not enough to cause a robust U.S. recovery to stall. Most of the unemployed are expected to return to the labor force in the near future.
Read: The Fed has bet on a future of low inflation. Here’s what could go wrong
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
and S&P 500
SPX,
were set to higher in Thursday trades.
