Jobless claims edge higher from 52-year lows as the unemployment recovery pushes forward

• Jobless claims increased to 206,000 last week, bouncing off of the prior week's 52-year low.
• The sum landed above the median economist forecast of 195,000 claims.

Filings for unemployment benefits crept higher last week, signaling a bumpier path toward achieving a full unemployment recovery.

Jobless claims rose to 206,000 last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That landed above the median forecast of 195,000 claims from economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

The previous week's sum was revised to 188,000 from 184,000 but still marked the lowest count since 1969. Claims have fluctuated around 200,000 in the last few weeks, the same threshold that filings averaged before the pandemic. Though the labor market hasn't entirely healed yet, the steady decline is an encouraging sign that fewer people are being laid off.

Continuing claims, which count Americans receiving ongoing unemployment insurance, slid to 1.85 million for the week that ended December 4. The median forecast was for a decline to 1.94 million. The print marks the lowest reading since March 2020, when the pandemic first drove claims sharply higher.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell offered a hopeful outlook for the labor market recovery in a Wednesday press conference. The US is "making rapid progress" toward reaching the central bank's maximum-employment goal, and all participants at the Fed's latest policy meeting expect the target to be met in 2022, Powell said.

The Fed's latest economic projections back his optimism. Members' median forecast for the 2022 unemployment rate improved to 3.5% from the 3.8% estimate made in September. That matches the record-low unemployment rate seen just before the pandemic recession. Officials see the US holding that level through 2024.