New weekly jobless claims dropped from the prior week’s upwardly revised level to a fresh pandemic-era low last week, with the accelerating pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. helping support the labor market’s recovery.
The Department of Labor released its weekly report on new jobless claims on Thursday and here were the main metrics from the report, compared to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg:
Initial jobless claims, week ended April 24: 553,000 vs. 540,000 expected, and an upwardly revised 566,000 during the prior week
Continuing claims, week ended April 17: 3.7 million vs. 3.6 million expected, and a downwardly revised 3.6 million during the prior week
New jobless claims held below 600,000 for a third straight week, dipping to the lowest level since mid-March 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a major blow to the U.S. economy. During the comparable week last year, new weekly jobless claims totaled nearly 3.5 million.
Click here to see the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.