U.S. states posted a bigger-than-expected drop in new jobless claims last week as impacts related to Hurricane Ida and the Delta variant’s summer spike receded.
The Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report Thursday morning, and here were the main metrics compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Initial unemployment claims, week ended Oct. 2: 326,000 versus 348,000 expected, and an upwardly revised 364,000 during prior week
Continuing claims, week ended Sept. 25: 2.7 million versus 2.8 million expected and an upwardly revised 2.8 million during prior week
Thursday’s report ended a three-week streak of increases in new weekly jobless claims. First-time filings had reached 312,000, or the lowest level since March 2020, in early September before rising. Some economists attributed this to an uptick in coronavirus cases and disruptions due to Hurricane Ida, which may have caused some individuals to delay filing to mid-month.
With the four-week moving average for claims hovering around 344,000, weekly filings have come down precipitously from their pandemic-era highs. And beyond new claimants, the total number of continuing claimants across state unemployment benefits has also come down markedly.
Click here to see the full report from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.
