Workers receiving unemployment insurance highest since 2021
San José, CA – On Thursday, July 18, the weekly report on unemployment insurance showed 243,000 new claims for the week ending July 13. This was 20,000 higher than the previous week.
The number of people receiving unemployment benefits for the week ending July 6 also rose to 1,867,000. This was the highest level of unemployment insurance benefits since November 27, 2021, when the economy was still recovering from the 2020 recession.
The rising number of unemployment insurance claims is another sign of the weakening jobs market and tends to predict even higher unemployment rates in the future. At the same time, the number of new claims is not indicating a recession in the near future. In November 2007, right before the recession, unemployment insurance claims topped 450,000, or almost twice the current rate.