By Sarah Chaney Cambon

Jobless claims rose for the second straight week to 778,000, a sign the nationwide surge in virus cases was starting to weigh on the labor-market recovery.

Worker filings for unemployment insurance are down sharply from a peak of nearly seven million in late March. But they remain higher than in any previous recession--the prepandemic peak was 695,000 in 1982--for records tracing back to 1967.

Claims filings can be more volatile around the holidays, due to work week changes that can cause seasonal-adjustment anomalies. The four-week moving average, which smoothes out weekly variation, increased by 5,000 to 748,500.

Increases in jobless claims were widespread across states. Some of the states with sharp increases in virus cases, including Minnesota, Ohio and Illinois, saw a large rise in claims last week.

Write to Sarah Chaney Cambon at sarah.chaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2020 09:01 ET (14:01 GMT)