US jobless claims continue to shrink as layoffs fall to lowest level in 21 years
The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits fell again last week as the labour market continued its slow recovery from the pandemic.
According to the US Labor Department’s latest report, 385,000 filed for benefits last week, down 14,000 on the previous week.
The latest total perfectly tallied with economists’ forecasts, but remains far above pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, there were roughly 200,000 such claims a week.
More promisingly, the number of continuing claims continued to fall, dropping 366,000 to 2.9m, the first time continuing claims have fallen below that level since the beginning of the pandemic.
In addition, the report showed that layoffs fell to the lowest level in the past 21 years as firms kept hold of staff amid ongoing labour shortages.
Attention will now turn to July’s monthly job market report to see if the momentum will be continued.
Today’s positive report sent US markets up in the first hours of trading today.
The S&P 500 was up 0.5 per cent, the Dow Jones climbed 0.6 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq picked up a further 0.7 per cent.
After concerns of a surge in the number of cases of the so-called variant, as well as fears over rising inflation, markets have recovered this week, with the S&P 500 closing just off record highs last night.
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