The number of people who applied for unemployment insurance fell for the seventh-straight week last week, the latest sign that the labor market is starting to recover from the effects of the swine flu.
Last week, economists were expecting about 260,000 new unemployment claims.
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The number of people who filed initial jobless claims in the week ending November 6 was 268,000, down from the previous week and the lowest level since March 14, 2020.
Despite the decline, the figures failed to meet economist expectations, and last week's initial claims were revised up to 269,000 from 267,000 originally reported.
The number of continuing claims, which are known as insured unemployment, fell to a new low of 2.1 million, down 129,000 from the previous week.
In an email, Greg McBridge, the chief financial analyst at Bankrate, pointed to the stark improvement in claims year over year as a sign of the economy's progress, noting about 20.8 million received unemployment benefits across all programs in the comparable week last year.
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The progress may have been slight, but it is progress nonetheless, as evidenced by the consistent declines in the number of people looking for work.
The key background.
The labor market has strengthened in recent weeks, but the pace of hiring is still struggling despite record-high job openings. In September, the job market was the worst of the year, with the economy adding just 200,000 jobs, well below expectations. The US added back 531,000 jobs in October, the best showing in six months, as the unemployment rate fell to a four-decade low. President Joe Biden said in a statement that the unemployment rate has fallen so far this year at the fastest rate since the 1950s. The jobs recovery has happened faster than after the Great Recession. America is getting back to work.
There are close to a million job openings in the U.S.
The US economy added 531,000 jobs last month.
Jobless claims have hit a new low.
