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The numbers: The number of new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose slightly to 745,000 at the end of February, signaling the economy is still a long way from recovering all the jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Initial jobless claims filed traditionally through the states rose by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended Feb. 27, the government said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast new claims would total a seasonally adjusted 750,000.
Another 436,696 applications for benefits were filed through a temporary federal-relief program.
The claims data has been erratic and unreliable lately owing to fraud, processing problems and bad weather like the freak cold spell in Texas that caused severe power outages and shut down many businesses. New claims in Texas rose sharply last week.
Yet even if the current figures were very accurate, it would show the economy is still suffering major layoffs.
Adding up new state and federal claims, the government received 1.18 million applications last week for unemployment benefits, based on actual or unadjusted figures.
Combined claims have yet to drop below 1 million a week since last May. Before the pandemic, new claims were running in the low 200,000s and they had never risen by more than 695,000 in any one week.
See: A visual look at how an unfair pandemic has reshaped work and home
What happened: New applications for jobless benefits rose the most in Texas, Ohio and New York. Missouri was the only state to report a big decline.
The number of people already collecting traditional unemployment benefits, meanwhile, fell by 124,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.3 million. These claims are reported with a two-week lag.
An additional 4.47 million who have exhausted state compensation were getting benefits through an emergency program funded by the federal government. That was down 600,607 from the prior week.
Altogether, the number of people reportedly receiving benefits from eight separate state and federal programs was reported at an unadjusted 18 million as of Feb. 13, a decline of 1.01 million from the prior week.
Fewer than 2 million people were getting benefits before the pandemic erupted.
Read: Inflation worries are back. Should you worry?
Note to readers: A government review found the number of distinct individuals collecting benefits has been inflated by fraud and double counting. Economists say to pay attention to the direction of claims instead of the totals.
Read: Jobless claims inflated, GAO finds
Also: Why the inaccurate jobless claims report is still useful to investors
The big picture: The economy is still losing lots of jobs, but the tide appears to be turning. States are lifting business restrictions again, more people are getting vaccinated and the federal government is about to approve nearly $2 trillion of extra stimulus.
The economy is likely to speed up soon and start to put more people back to work, especially if the coronavirus continues to recede.
Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.39% and S&P 500 SPX, -1.31% were set to open narrowly mixed in Thursday trades.
