The number of new applications for unemployment benefits dropped to 751,000 last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday, down from 791,000 and a new low since the beginning of the pandemic.
Economists expected claims to total 770,000 last week.
Additionally, states reported 359,667 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a new category of eligibility created by the March CARES Act that provides benefits for workers sidelined by the pandemic, such as gig workers whose work dried up. Altogether, then, around 1.1 million workers filed for benefits.
Thursday’s release indicates that the labor market is healing, if slowly, but that the situation remains extremely bad by historical standards. In comparison, prior to the pandemic, weekly claims had been running close to 200,000. Another point of comparison would be that weekly claims now are still worse than they were at the depths of the Great Recession in 2009.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Oct. 10 was more than 22 million. Last year, in the comparable week, that number was 1.4 million.
Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate, said Thursday’s report does not give much of a reason to celebrate.
“New unemployment claims are lower, but hardly in the realm where we can take a great deal of reassurance,” he said.
Fewer firms are looking to add new workers in the fourth quarter, according to polling released Monday, making it harder for the economy to regain the millions of jobs lost in the pandemic.
