Unemployment

They’re hiring, paying more, and giving workers more hours.

In Iran, inflation is soaring, food prices are spiking, and over a million people have lost their jobs.

Philadelphia’s unemployment rate has risen recently, from 4.5% to 5.3%. That is a whole percentage point higher than the state and national average.

Long-term unemployment is defined as six months or more without work. The number of Americans in that group is up more than 300,000 over the past year, even as the overall jobless rate holds at 4.3%.

The economic landscape in this country looks very different now than it did four weeks ago, when the U.S. and Israel began waging a new war in Iran that has spread throughout the region. And the economic impact has been nothing but negative.

Unemployment insurance claims dropped more than expected last week. The number of people filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell to 205,000, the lowest level since January.

The rate of people either working or looking for work in the U.S. ticked down to 62%.

The outlook for the job market — and the entire economy — is presently being clouded by war in the Middle East.

Economists say numbers that will be released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on unemployment and wage growth will help them get a sense of consumer’s spending power going forward.

“Unemployment is not a problem for our system,” said University of Tulsa professor Clara Mattei. “It's actually a solution for it.”