The number of new applications for unemployment benefits fell 7,000 last week to 411,000, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
The number of new jobless claims represents the number of people who filed for unemployment in the previous week. Thursday’s number was more than forecasters’ expectations of 380,000 new claims. The number is lower than the week before, which saw 418,000 filings.
Economists are keenly interested in these weekly jobless claim reports because of the shortages of labor being experienced by various sectors of the economy. Some believe that the difficulty of employers to find workers stems from the expanded federal unemployment benefits, which provide recipients with $300 per week stacked on top of what each state already provides.
PANDEMIC UNEMPLOYMENT BOOST GONE FOR NEARLY 8% OF POPULATION
About half of the states have opted out or have announced plans to opt out of the expanded program because of the belief that people are forgoing work opportunities because they can make more income collecting unemployment.
While Alaska, Iowa, Mississippi, and Missouri all opted out before last week’s report, this week’s report comes after more states representing about 8% of the total United States population phased out of the pandemic-era assistance ahead of schedule. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah are set to end the benefits this weekend.
Last month, the economy fell short of expectations in adding 559,000 new jobs, a number that was below the 650,000 expected by forecasters but still much better than the shockingly bad report from April, when just 278,000 jobs were added, a figure well below predictions of nearly 1 million new jobs.
The expanded federal unemployment program, which was implemented to help workers during the coronavirus pandemic, will sunset for the entire country on Labor Day.
