The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a 14-month low last week as companies held onto their workers amid a growing labor shortage that helped to curb employment growth in April.
The scramble for workers comes as the reopening economy is experiencing a boom in demand, resulting in widespread shortages of inputs at factories and fanning inflation. Producer prices increased more than expected in April, leading to the biggest annual gain since 2010, other data showed on Thursday.

The worker shortage is despite nearly 10 million Americans being officially unemployed, a disconnect that economists expect will resolve in the coming months as increased vaccinations ease COVID-19 stress and enhanced unemployment benefits expire, allowing some workers to return to the labor market.
Claims have dropped from a record 6.149 million in early April 2020, but remain well above the 200,000 to 250,000 range that is viewed as consistent with a healthy labor market.
Some economists believe the enhanced unemployment benefits programs, including a weekly $300 government subsidy, could be encouraging some people to attempt to file a claim for assistance, though not every application is approved.
The economy created 266,000 jobs in April after adding 770,000 in March, which was partly blamed on the generous unemployment benefits. There are a record 8.1 million open jobs

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said that U.S. motorists can expect filling stations to begin returning to normal this weekend even as shortages gripped some areas amid restart of the top U.S. fuel pipeline after it was shut by a ransomware attack.

The Colonial Pipeline, which carries 100 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, will take some time to fully recover and could still suffer “hiccups,” he said. Colonial began supplying some fuel to most regions along its 5,500 mile (8,850 km) route.

The shutdown caused gasoline shortages and emergency declarations from Virginia to Florida, led two refineries to curb production, and spurred airlines to reshuffle refueling operations.

The pipeline resumed computer-controlled pumping late Wednesday after adding safety measures.

The pipeline’s restart should bring supplies to some hard-hit areas as soon as Thursday, said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Relief is coming, added Jeanette McGee, a spokeswoman for motor travel group AAA.

Motorists’ tempers frayed as panic buying led stations to run out even where supplies were available. On Thursday about 70% of gas stations in North Carolina were without fuel, while around 50% of stations in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia had outages, tracking firm GasBuddy said.

The average national gasoline price rose above $3.00 a gallon, the highest since October 2014, the American Automobile Association said, and prices in some areas jumped as much as 11 cents in a day.

Italy’s anti-trust authority said Thursday it had fined Google more than 100 million euros ($120mn) for shutting out a rival’s smartphone app offering recharging of electric vehicles.

The authority said Google, whose Android operating system and Google Play app store dominate the Italian market, had abused its market position by blocking an Enel X app for users of electric vehicles.

The regulator added it would require Google to make Enel X’s app available on Android Auto, which mirrors features of an Android device, such as a smartphone, on a car dashboard screen.

The fine of 102,084,433.91 Euros is for a violation of article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which regulates monopolies and issues involving restriction of competition.

Italy found Google did not allow Enel X Italia to develop an Android Auto-compatible version of its JuicePass app. JuicePass offers services relating to recharging electric vehicles, such as finding the nearest charging station and reserving a space there.

“By refusing Enel X Italia interoperability with Android Auto, Google has unfairly limited the possibilities for end users to avail themselves of the Enel X Italia app when driving and recharging an electric vehicle,” the authority stated.

“Google has consequently favored its own Google Maps app,” added the authority.

“The exclusion of the Enel X Italia app from Android Auto has been going on for more than two years, and if it were to continue, could permanently jeopardise Enel X Italia’s chances of building a solid user base at a time of significant growth in sales of electric vehicles.”

This, the body concluded, amounted to “an impoverishment of consumer choice and an obstacle to technological progress” which could influence the development of electric mobility.

The authority as a result said it had ordered Google to make available to Enel X Italia and other app developers app programming tools which are interoperable with Android Auto while adding it would monitor compliance of its ruling via an independent expert with whom Google would be obliged to cooperate.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved Tuesday the widening and deepening of the southern part of the Suez Canal, after a stranded mega-ship crippled the critical maritime artery for six days in March.

“What you heard today is about the upgrade in the southern stretch, where the problem (the grounded vessel) happened,” Sisi said from Ismailia, where the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is headquartered.

The major engineering enhancement “will lead to improvements in the ability of the guide (SCA) and the captain of any ship to navigate inside the canal”, said SCA head Osama Rabie, who presented the expansion plan to Sisi in a televised address.

Rabie said the upgrades would stretch “from the 122-kilometre mark to the 162-kilometre mark” and would include a 10-kilometre “duplication of the canal from the 122- to the 132-kilometre mark”.

The project will last 24 months, he added, with the widening extending lanes “by 40 meters (131 feet) to the east and deepening from 66 feet (20 metres) to 72 feet”.

Sisi said the work would improve the canal, “taking into account the growth of global trade”.

The 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given got diagonally stuck in the narrow but crucial global trade artery in a sandstorm on March 23, triggering a mammoth six-day-long effort by Egyptian personnel and international salvage specialists to dislodge it.

Egypt lost between $12 million and $15 million in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to SCA figures.

After the vessel was freed, Sisi pledged investment to avoid any repetition of the canal closure.

The mega-ship has since been impounded in a lake between two stretches of the canal amid a compensation dispute.

A court in Ismailia last week rejected an appeal from the ship’s Japanese owners against its seizure.

Egypt spent more than $8 billion on an expansion of the northern section of the canal in 2014-15.