New jobless claims rise in Michigan, fall nationally

New jobless claims in Michigan spiked higher last week but fell nationally in the most recent sign of an overall improving economy with pockets still struggling to recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, now in its second year.

In Michigan, 21,861 workers filed new claims for jobless benefits for the week ending April 17, up considerably from the adjusted number of 16,470 new claims filed the previous week, according to num

bers released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department. Nationally, the number of new claims fell to a pandemic low of 547,000, down 39,000 from the previous week in an encouraging sign that layoffs are slowing on the strength of an improving job market.

While new jobless claims are up in Michigan, the number of continuing claims in the system has fallen to 100,622, possibly indicating the new layoffs may be short term.

Though still high, the jobless numbers are far lower than their peak a year ago when more than 82,000 filed new claims for the week ending April 25 and there was nearly a million people with continuing unemployment claims from the pandemic that shut down much of the state and national economy.

Nationally, the overall job market is making steady gains. Last month, the nation’s employers adding 916,000 jobs, the most since August, in a sign that a sustained recovery is taking hold.

Yet the still-high number of ongoing recipients shows

that even as the economy has strengthened in recent weeks, millions of people — disproportionately lowincome workers and people of color — continue to endure a loss of a job or income and have struggled to pay bills or rent.

For now, the economy is showing steady signs of recovering. Sales at retail stores and restaurants soared 10% in March – the biggest increase since last May. Federal stimulus checks of $1,400 have been sent to most adults. And Americans who have kept their jobs have accumulated additional savings, part of which they will likely spend

now that states and cities have loosened business restrictions and the virus wanes in some places.

Economic growth is accelerating so fast that the principal concerns surrounding the economy have shifted from a high unemployment rate and anemic spending to bottlenecks in company supply chains and the difficulty some businesses say they are having in finding enough workers.

Those issues, in turn, have fed concerns that the Federal Reserve’s low-interest rate policies could fuel a spike in inflation. Last month, wholesale prices jumped 4.2% compared

with a year earlier, the biggest 12-month increase in nearly a decade. Still, consumer prices are, so far, rising at a more restrained pace. They increased 2.6% in March from a year earlier, mostly because of a jump in gas prices. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation rose just 1.6% in the previous 12 months.

Michigan’s restaurant and hospitality industries have been among those hit hardest by the pandemic and are struggling the most to recover from health orders

limiting capacity for much of the year.

In all, Michigan has paid $3.31 billion in jobless benefits to 3.31 million workers since March 15, 2020 when the pandemic took hold, indicating that much of the state’s workforce has experienced at least shortterm layoffs. Roughly $5.48 billion in claims has come from the state with the rest from beefed up federal assistance from rescue plans approved by Congress.