Unemployment claims total 340,000, the lowest level since March 2020

Initial unemployment insurance claims fell last week to the lowest levels since March 2020, another sign that the labor market has been progressively improving since the Covid-19 era, the Department reported Thursday. of Work.

The first unemployment claims amounted to 340,000 for the week ended August 28, compared to Dow Jones ’345,000 estimates. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when claims for the first time were 256,000, just before the coronavirus pandemic caused a historic rush to unemployment benefits.

The level of initial claims from the previous week was revised by 1,000, from 353,000 to 354,000.

The level of ongoing claims, the measure of ongoing benefits, was 2.75 million, a decrease of 160,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The declining number of continued claims also represents the lowest level for insured unemployment since the Covid era began.

Economists seeking even stronger job creation have noted that federal unemployment benefits, a safety net for those who lost their jobs during the worst moment of the Covid-19 pandemic, should expire on 6 of September. open in the United States, parents may eventually be able to return to the office.

“In short, we now have the lowest initial claims claims and the lowest level of continued claims since everything changed in March last year,” wrote Peter Boockvar, investment director at Bleakley Advisory Group . “You just have to listen to any company that wants to expand and it will hear stories about the difficulty of finding positions, so it makes sense that claims continue to dwindle.”

“Of course, we will now hear what will happen in the coming weeks as the classrooms fill up, hopefully without incident, parents will return to work and the extra benefits will expire,” he added.

The total number of continuous weeks claimed for benefits in all programs in all states for the week ending August 14 was 12.19 million, an increase of 178,526 over the previous week. In the comparable week of 2020, 29.75 million weekly benefit claims were filed in all programs.

Unemployment claims data is one day ahead of the Department of Labor’s important monthly job report, a detailed update that Wall Street uses as a gauge in the broader U.S. labor market.

This report will show how the US labor market fared in August. Economists expect U.S. employers to add 720,000 payrolls last month and the unemployment rate to drop to 5.2% from 5.4%.