U.S. unemployment claims increased last week, indicating that the labor market was affected by the rising Covid-19 epidemic.
Total unemployment claims rose to 778,000 for the week ending November 21. This reading surpasses the expectations of economists who only target the total number of unemployment claims is 733,000. In addition, last week's reading also increased from the previous week's reading which recorded a total of 742,000.
The report was released amid an increase in Covid-19 cases and concerns that the health sector is under increasing pressure. The average daily cases recorded an average of 174,225 since last week. Health officials have expressed concern that the festive season and the Thanksgiving event will trigger more pandemic cases.
Although the weekly unemployment claim has been below 800,000 for the last six weeks but the reading of the number is still far from reaching the record number before the pandemic spread.
The US dollar index continued to decline against major currencies by 0.15% to the 92.080 exchange rate.
