Weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level since lockdowns

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill


BY SYLVAN LANE - 04/15/21 08:41 AM EDT

Weekly jobless claims plunged by 200,000 applications to the lowest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year ago, the Labor Department reported Thursday

In the week ending April 10, roughly 576,000 Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, plummeting from a revised total of 769,000 in the previous week.

Last week’s total was the lowest since the week ending March 14, 2020, when Americans filed 256,000 initial claims for jobless benefits as entire swaths of the economy began to shut down.

While weekly jobless claims data can be thrown off by fraud and backlogs — two significant issues during the pandemic — last week’s sharp decline is another encouraging sign of the U.S. economy beginning to rapidly recover.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/finance/548373-weekly-jobless-claims-fall-by-200k-to-lowest-level-since-march-2020

[rurallib]

1. Whoever would have thought 576,000 jobless claims would be great news?

keep it up Joe!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I just remembered. From the source, and from Yahoo! Finance:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, April 15, 2021

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 576,000, a decrease of 193,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 25,000 from 744,000 to 769,000. The 4-week moving average was 683,000, a decrease of 47,250 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 6,500 from 723,750 to 730,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent for the week ending April 3, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 3 was 3,731,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 7,000 from 3,734,000 to 3,727,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,763,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 28, 2020 when it was 3,611,750. The previous week's average was revised down by 1,000 from 3,862,000 to 3,861,000.

{snip}

UNADJUSTED DATA

{snip. Emphasis mine}

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending March 27 was 16,934,061, a decrease of 1,235,856 from the previous week. There were 8,196,826 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

{snip the rest of the twelve-page news release, until the end}

Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 21-685-NAT

Program Contacts:
Thomas Stengle: [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]

And from Yahoo! Finance:

Yahoo Finance

Initial jobless claims drop to fresh pandemic-era low of 576,000

Emily McCormick·Reporter
Thu, April 15, 2021, 8:31 AM

New weekly jobless claims plunged to a pandemic-era low after last week's unexpected jump, with the labor market's choppy recovery closely following the trajectory of new COVID-19 infections.

The Department of Labor released its weekly report on new jobless claims on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the report, compared to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg:

• Initial jobless claims, week ended April 10: 576,000 vs. 700,000 expected and a revised 769,000 during the prior week

• Continuing claims, week ended April 3: 3.731 million vs. 3.700 million expected vs. 3.727 million during the prior week

Initial unemployment claims were expected to hold at or above the 700,000 level for a third consecutive week, remaining close to levels from November. Instead, new claims unexpectedly broke below the Great Recession-era high of 665,000 new claims filed in March 2009 for the first time in more than a year.

“With a huge, better-than-expected decline in new claims for unemployment assistance, at long last the economic recovery appears to be picking up speed," Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, said in an email Thursday morning. "Not only did the headline number of seasonally adjusted initial claims drop beneath the 700,000 level, but it continued on below 600,000 to the lowest since mid-March of 2020.”

{snip}