The number of initial applications for unemployment benefits in the United States during the week ended December 5 registered its largest increase in absolute terms since March, reaching a total of 853,000 new applicants, 137,000 more than in the previous week, according to the data published by the Department of Labor.
The last time the United States registered a weekly increase of more than 137,000 weekly requests was in the week ended March 28, when the number of requests skyrocketed by 3.56 million.
In absolute terms, the figure of 853,000 new applications is the highest in almost three months, since the week ended September 19 accounted for 873,000 new applications.
Regarding the total number of people who are recipients of the unemployment benefit, the week ended on November 28 had 5,757 million recipients of the aid. This represents a weekly increase of 230,000 people, which is the first increase recorded in 13 weeks.
Last week, the US Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate in the country fell by two tenths in November, to stand at 6.7%. In the 11th month of the year, 245,000 jobs were created, the lowest number in the seven months of recovery after April, when 20.8 million jobs were lost.
