Breaking: U.S. Jobless Claims Record Highest Weekly Increase; Bitcoin Price Jumps

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, initial jobless claims rose to 211,000 in February according to their most recent data. This is significantly more than the 190K claims reported in January. However, analysts predicted that it would be much higher. Market expectations were for approximately 195K claims per month.

Fear Of Recession Gains Steam

The latest data shows that there has been a decrease in the employment rate, despite a massive increase in new jobs in January. This raises concerns about an imminent recession. The number of continuing claims, which includes those who have been receiving unemployment benefit for more than a week, increased by 69,000 to 1.72million in the week ended February 25. This is an indicator of how hard it is to find work after losing a job. This was the largest increase since November 2021.

The jobless claims rose by more than 35,000 if you don’t include the adjustments. They now total 237,513. This surge was mainly driven by activity in New York and California. This data might be taken into account by the Federal Reserve when they release the April interest rate hike.

The Bitcoin Price Explodes as Market Goes Green

The price for Bitcoin (BTC), slightly jumped within minutes of the news being released. It is currently exchanging hands at $21,677. This is a 0.26% increase in the past hour and a decrease of 1.57% in the last 24 hours. The headline number of 211,000 claims indicates that the entire crypto market has moved into the green zone according to Coingape’s crypto tracker.

Ethereum’s price is currently trading at $1.536. It has experienced a gain in value of 0.3% in the last hour and a decrease in value of about 1% over the past 24 hours. In response to the news, prices of other altcoins such as XRP and DOGE saw an approximately 0.50% increase.