New nationwide weekly jobless claims hovered near their lowest level since March 2020, underscoring the sustained improvement in the labor market despite ongoing concerns over the Delta variant and worker shortages.
The Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday and here are the main metrics, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Initial unemployment claims, week ended August 21: 353,000 vs. 350,000 expected, and a revised 349,000 during the prior week.
Continuing claims, week ended August 14: 2.9 million vs. 2.8 million expected, and 2.8 million during the prior week.
At 353,000, the level of new jobless claims was up slightly from the previous week, marking the first increase in initial claims in five weeks. Still, weekly claims have more than halved compared to their weekly pace in August 2020 and have trended lower since the start of 2021. And the four-week moving average for new jobless claims came down by another 11,500 to reach 366,500, marking the lowest level since March 2020.
Click here to read the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.