Weekly jobless claims rise to 412,000, first seven-day increase since April

The number of Americans applying for weekly unemployment benefits increased last week 412,000, marking the first week-to-week rise since April, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The number for the week ending June 12 increased by 37,000, compared to one week earlier, according to the Associated Press.

Still AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, the increase "should not be cause for concern yet," as the U.S. and much of the rest of the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and economies restart.

Until last week, unemployment applications had dropped for six straight weeks, reaching their lowest levels since March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.

A year ago, at the start of the pandemic, nearly 1.5 million Americans a week were applying for unemployment assistance. The report Thursday also stated nearly 3.5 million Americans were continuing to collect state unemployment benefits, only increasing by 1,000 new applicants from the week before. 

"The big picture is that while we are not back to a normal level yet of initial claims, (but)  they are no longer astronomically high," Konkel said.