Jobless Claims Below 1M For First Time In 20 Weeks

Yahoo Money reports



The number of individuals filing new unemployment insurance claims improved to a fresh pandemic-era low last week, falling below the 1 million mark for the first time since March.

Thursday’s report ended what had been a previous 20-week streak that new claims totaled more than 1 million, with tens of millions of Americans put out of work during the coronavirus pandemic and forced business closures that ensued. Since the week ended March 20, more than 55 million individuals have filed new unemployment insurance claims.

At 963,000 million, the number of new claims last week was at the lowest level since the start of the pandemic. Weekly jobless claims peaked with a one-week increase of about 6.9 million in late March. Prior to the pandemic, however, weekly jobless claims were coming in consistently below 250,000.