US Unemployment Claims Are not Decreasing

In the US, unemployment claims are not decreasing. The number of unemployment applications remained unchanged in the country in the last week of 2020. Unemployment benefit applications remained unchanged at 787 thousand in the last week of 2020, while the number of unemployment applications for the previous week was revised to 790 thousand. Before the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic, unemployment applications, which were around 200 thousand people on average and at the lowest level in recent years, broke a record during the peak of the epidemic. Then, the data in question gradually fell behind 1 million. Contrary to expectations, the drop in unemployment claims was very limited below 800 thousand. However, when the measures were tightened as a result of the increase in cases in the last quarter of 2020, employment in sectors such as tourism and entertainment, especially in the service sector, weakened again. The private sector employment data announced yesterday fell by 123 thousand and was recorded at the worst level of the last 7 months. It is estimated that non-agricultural employment to be announced tomorrow will be realized at a seriously low 71 thousand. It was stated that there is a need for more incentives to increase employment, especially in sectors that are closed and those that cannot work at full capacity. Also, in yesterday's Georgia elections, Democrats came to the fore in the senate, creating the expectation that incentives would increase. On the other hand, despite the weak production in the markets, the expectation that inflation will increase due to the high demand and cost also showed itself. Therefore, it was stated that faster steps should be taken to stabilize the real market before policies. Due to the real sector, which has been going through tough days, the desired improvement is not realized on the employment front. As for the US Dollar Index; While the stock markets are rallying with the blue wave expectation, today they are moving upwards from the bottom level, albeit slightly, due to the 10-year bond interest rate exceeding 1 percent. It is stated that in the second half of the day, the earnings of currencies decreased with the movement in the dollar.     Source: Investing.com