New jobless claims unexpectedly steadied below 800,000 at the turn of the new year but still held at a historically elevated level, as the labor market struggled to regain traction amid the ongoing pandemic. … Continuing claims, measuring the total number of Americans still receiving state unemployment benefits, were expected to have improved only trivially to 5.2 million in the last full week of December, in another sign of weakening momentum in the labor market recovery.