The average gas price in the United States shot above $5 per gallon on Thursday, after a surge over the past month, while more Americans applied for jobless aid last week as inflation further hurt people's budgets.
The average price of a gallon of gas in all 50 states was above $4.40, but costs varied greatly between areas, with drivers in the West and Northeast paying the highest prices and those in the Southeast paying the lowest, according to AAA data.
Moreover, AAA data showed drivers in California, the state with the highest gas prices, paid an eye-popping average of $6.40 per gallon.
Per ABC News, experts said late last month that the increased prices are due to a summer tourism surge that has drawn more people to the pump. The increase in demand corresponds with a crude oil supply constraint resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a widespread industry departure from Russia, removing millions of barrels of oil from the market, according to experts.
Biden's Actions on Rising US Oil Prices Blasted
Biden's handling of the US oil supply has been slammed for raising petrol prices by Republican lawmakers, who criticized his decision to stop down the Keystone XL pipeline last year.
Biden was leaning toward a trip to Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil supplier last week, which could provide some assistance for gas consumers in the US, as per an Al Jazeera report.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced on Sunday that addressing inflation is the "top economic priority" of the Biden administration.
More Americans Seek Unemployment Benefits
Meanwhile, the Labor Department announced Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits increased by 27,000 to 229,000 for the week ending June 4, the highest level since mid-January. The number of layoffs is usually tracked in first-time applications.
The four-week average for claims increased by 8,000 from the previous week to 215,000, smoothing out some of the weekly volatility, according to a report from AP News.
For the week ending May 28, the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits stagnated from the previous week at 1,306,000, the lowest number since January 10, 1970.
Two years after the coronavirus outbreak sent the economy into a brief but catastrophic recession, American workers are enjoying historically high job security.
Even though the general economy fell in the first quarter and inflation fears linger, weekly jobless aid applications have remained consistently below the pre-pandemic level of 225,000 throughout 2022.
The government reported last week that companies in the United States added 390,000 jobs in May, continuing a trend of strong recruitment that has buoyed an economy under pressure from high inflation and rising interest rates.
Despite being strong, job growth in May was the lowest in a year. However, it was sufficient to keep the Fed on track to boost rates at the fastest pace in more than three decades.
The Federal Reserve stepped up its fight against inflation in May by increasing its benchmark short-term interest rate by a half-percentage point, indicating that more major rate hikes are on the way.
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet again next week.
