U.S. Unemployment Claims Drop to Lowest Level in 52 Years

My account.

You can manage the account.
Digital magazines.
The help center is open.
You should sign out.

Sections.

Join us.

Customer care.

The US and Canada.
The Global Help Center.

You can reach out.

There are careers.
The press room is located in a building.
Contact the editors.
Permissions and Reprints.

More.

Privacy policy
Your privacy rights in California.
The terms are used.
There is a site map.

You can connect with us.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted last week to the lowest level in more than half a century, another sign that the U.S. job market is recovering rapidly from last year's coronavirus recession.

There were 199,000 jobless claims, the lowest since 1969. Seasonal adjustments around the Thanksgiving holiday contributed to the bigger than expected drop. Unadjusted, claims went up by more than 18,000.

The four-week average of claims dropped by 21,000 to just over 252,000, the lowest since March of 2020 when the economy was devastated by the Pandemic.

The number of applications has fallen steadily since January when they hit 900,000. Unemployment claims are a good indicator of layoffs.

2 million Americans were collecting unemployment checks last week, down from the previous week.

The trend remains very slowly lower, according to a research note from Contingent Macro Advisors.

The federal government paid an extra $300 a week and extended unemployment benefits to gig workers and people who were out of work for six months or more. In June 2020, the number of Americans receiving some form of unemployment aid peaked at more than 33 million.

The job market has rebounded remarkably since the spring of 2020 when the coronaviruses caused businesses to close or cut hours and kept many Americans at home. Employers slashed more than 22 million jobs in March and April of last year.

Government relief checks, low interest rates and the introduction of vaccines combined to give consumers the confidence to start spending again. Employers have made 18 million new hires since April 2020 and are expected to add another 575,000 this month. The United States is still short of jobs it had in February 2020.

In September, there were a near-record 10 million job openings. The number of people quitting their jobs in September was the highest on record, a sign that workers are becoming morechoosier about their jobs.

If you want to contact us, you can email us at letters@time.com.

There is an update post.

California residents can opt out of sharing their name and contact information with third parties.

Privacy policy

The website cannot function without these cookies. Some parts of the site will not work if you block or alert your browser about these cookies. The cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

We can measure and improve the performance of our site with the help of these cookies. They help us to know which pages are popular and which are not. If you don't allow these cookies, we won't know when you have visited our site and we won't be able to monitor its performance.

The cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They can track your browser and build up a profile of your interests. If you don't allow these cookies, you may not be able to see the sharing tools on other websites.

Our advertising partners may set targeting cookies on our site. They can be used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertising on other sites. They are based on your internet device's unique identification. You can turn off cookies for targeted advertising here. Cookies are on when the button is green. Targeting cookies are turned off when the button is red.

Enhancements to the website can be provided by these cookies. Some or all of the services may not work if you don't allow these cookies.