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Those applying for unemployment benefits across the nation continues to rise, this despite signs that the U.S. Labor Market is trending in the right direction following the issues we faced when the pandemic first hit.

Jobless claims rose by 18,000 last week and 1.8 million Americans are currently receiving traditional jobless benefits, that down slightly from a week ago. Weekly claims have fallen at a steady rate since topping 900,000 at the beginning of 2021. Since April, the United States has regained 18.5 million jobs, but that is still four million jobs short of where the country stood before COVID-19 struck in February 2020.

There were 210,000 jobs added in November and despite that sluggish report, the unemployment rate dipped to 4.2 percent, a pandemic low. There were 11 million job openings posted in October and 4.2 million people quit their jobs in October to look for something better.