New US Unemployment Claims at 290,000... Lowest Since COVID-19 Pandemic

Lowest Since March Last Year, Continued Decline in Unemployment Benefit Claims

New unemployment claims in the United States fell below 300,000 last week, marking the lowest level since the pandemic. The photo shows a job advertisement in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Photo by AP/Yonhap

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The number of new unemployment claims in the United States last week (October 3?9) fell below 300,000, marking the lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the 14th (local time), the U.S. Department of Labor announced that new unemployment claims last week totaled 293,000, a decrease of 36,000 from the previous week.

This is the lowest figure since 256,000 claims were recorded on March 14 of last year. The 4-week moving average of claims also dropped by 10,500 to 334,250 compared to the previous week. This figure is significantly below the expert forecast of 320,000 compiled earlier by Bloomberg News.

Trends in US Unemployment Insurance Claims for the First Week of October. Graph = US Bureau of Labor Statistics

The number of continuing unemployment claims, which counts those claiming benefits for two or more weeks, also decreased by 134,000 to 2,593,000 compared to the previous week. This is also the lowest level since March of last year.

With unemployment claims reaching their lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic, some analysts interpret this as a sign that the U.S. labor market is entering an improvement phase.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.