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Unemployment Claims Dipped but Remained High During Christmas Week



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The labor market remains in distress as the pandemic limits consumer activity across the country.Initial claims for unemployment benefits dropped modestly last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, though they remained very high by historical standards.The Christmas holiday likely affected filings because of the shortened workweek, a phenomenon that also occurred during Thanksgiving week. “They bounce up and down a lot during the holidays,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh.There were 841,000 new claims for state benefits, compared with 873,000 the previous week. Another 308,000 people filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally funded …

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