The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits fell last week to their lowest level in 52 years, as the labor market has staged an encouraging comeback in recent weeks despite struggling to add back workers who lost their jobs during the swine flu epidemic.
Last week, economists were expecting about 260,000 new unemployment claims.
The Associated Press.
In the week ending November 20 there were 199,000 initial jobless claims filed, down 71,000 from the previous week and the lowest level since 1969.
The previous week's new claims were revised up slightly to 270,000 from 268,000.
The figures this week came in much better than expected, with 260,000 new claims last week.
The number of continuing claims, known as insured unemployment, fell to a new low of around 2 million, falling 60,000 from the previous week, but still higher than before the Covidian disaster.
Bankrate analyst Mark Hamrick said in an email Wednesday that the decline was truly significant and that the labor market has further improved and that growth should be above par for the foreseeable future.
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 last week 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.
"Americans head into the heart of the holiday season with a reasonable expectation that an already tight job market will continue to tighten in the months ahead," he said. The hope is that the recovery should continue into the year 2022, even though Covid's toll on the economy is not yet fully forgiven. Americans can be thankful for that.
There are close to a million job openings in the U.S.
The US economy added 531,000 jobs last month.
