U.S. Jobless Claims Surprisingly Rose Last Week to 714,000

The number of people filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, signaling that the improvement in labor market trends remains uneven despite the reopening of large swathes of the economy.

The Labor Department said 714,000 people filed initial jobless claims last week, up from 658,000 the previous week. The latter figure, which was already the lowest since the pandemic started destroying jobs a year ago, was revised down by 26,000.

Analysts had expected a marginal decline in initial claims to 680,000.

The number of those making continuing claims, which is compiled with a one-week lag to the initial claims data, fell to 3.794 million. Millions more remain on other, pandemic-related insurance programs.