Jobless claims hit new pandemic-era low at 281,000 filings

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims hit new pandemic-era low at 281,000 filings

Dani Romero
Thu, October 28, 2021, 8:37 AM · 3 min read

This story is breaking and will be revised after 8:30 am.

Weekly jobless claims fell in the latest week, setting a marginal new pandemic-era low as the labor market slowly recovers to levels before COVID-19 walloped the global economy.

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

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended October 23: 281,000 vs. 288,000 expected and a revised 291,000 during the prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended October 16: 2.243 million vs. 2.420 million expected and a revised 2.480 million during the prior week

The latest jobless claims data reflect the smallest number of new filings since March 2020. The four-week moving average for new jobless claims dropped to 299,250, but that is still higher than the 225,500 in place on March 14, 2020 — just before the nationwide economic shutdown forced millions into unemployment.

"As we prepare to close the books on October, the good news is that the job market isn’t nearly as scary as the early days of the pandemic," Mark Hamrick, Bankrate senior economic analyst, wrote in an email on Tuesday.

"More employers are adding workers than shedding them, and a good number of firms and/or sectors indicate that they’re experiencing shortages of skilled labor, based on the survey just released by the National Association for Business Economics,” he added.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jobless-claims-week-ended-oct-23-184740478.html

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Jobless claims placeholder

Yahoo Finance
Initial jobless claims: Another 289K individuals likely filed new claims last week

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jobless-claims-week-ended-oct-23-184740478.html

Dani Romero
Thu, October 28, 2021, 8:04 AM · 3 min read
This story is breaking and will be revised after 8:30 am.

Weekly jobless claims are expected to dip in the latest week, setting a marginal new pandemic-era low as the labor market slowly recovers to levels before COVID-19 walloped the global economy.

The Labor Department releases its jobless claims report on Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended October 23: 289,000 expected vs. 290,000 during the prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended October 16: 2.420 million expected vs. 2.481 million during the prior week

If the downward trend holds, the latest jobless claims data are set to reflect the smallest number of new filings since March 2020. The four-week moving average for jobless claims last week dropped to 319,750, but that is still higher than the 225,500 in place on March 14, 2020 — just before the nationwide economic shutdown forced millions into unemployment.

Stay ahead of the market
Last week’s jobless claims also shows that the US is edging closer to its pre-pandemic normal when it comes to the labor market, though there is still some distance to cover. Weekly claims in October 2020 peaked at a rate of over 700,000, while in the same month in 2019, initial filings averaged just over 210,000.

The steady move lower in first-time filers so far this year has coincided with a jump in demand for labor, the expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, and elevated levels of quits by employees.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

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, October 28, 2021

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending October 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 281,000, a decrease of 10,000 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 1,000 from 290,000 to 291,000. The 4-week moving average was 299,250, a decrease of 20,750 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 250 from 319,750 to 320,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent for the week ending October 16, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending October 16 was 2,243,000, a decrease of 237,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 14, 2020 when it wa s 1,770,000. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 2,481,000 to 2,480,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,513,250, a decrease of 142,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020 when it was 2,071,750. The previous week's average was revised down by 250 from 2,655,500 to 2,655,250.

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UNADJUSTED DATA

{snip. Emphasis mine}

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending October 9 was 2,830,661, a decrease of 448,386 from the previous week. There were 23,479,913 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 21-1923-NAT

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