New jobless claims fall to lowest level since March

[mystery-ak]

New jobless claims fall to lowest level since March
by Jay Heflin, Business Editor |
 | August 06, 2020 08:31 AM

The number of new applications for unemployment benefits last week was 1.2 million, the Labor Department reported Thursday, marking the 20th straight week that claims have been over 1 million. It is also the lowest number of new claims since the pandemic exploded in the U.S. in March.

Economists predicted that new claims would be 1.42 million.

The weekly totals for workers claiming jobless benefits have been extremely high since the pandemic hit the United States. For comparison, weekly jobless claims pre-coronavirus were in the 200,000 range for the entire country. Now, California alone had over 244,000 initial claims for the week ending July 25.

The persistently high number of claims suggests that the jobs recovery is moving at a slow pace.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1-2-m-jobless-claims-filed-last-week-marking-20-straight-weeks-of-more-than-a-million

[libertybele]

Jobless claims fall almost 250,000 to 1.19 million to mark new pandemic low

..........The big drop in claims might stem in part from the pending expiration of a $600 federal unemployment stipend at the end of July, economists say. The program’s lapse could have led some people to believe they were no longer eligible to file.

Another possibility: The spike in coronavirus cases since Memorial Day also began to wane toward the end of last month, potentially helping to stabilize the labor market.

“The story here, we think, is that layoffs triggered by the second wave of Covid-19 in the South and West are now falling,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics..............

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-fall-almost-250000-to-119-million-to-mark-new-pandemic-low-2020-08-06?mod=home-page