New jobless claims fall below 400K for first time since March 2020

The number of Americans seeking new unemployment benefits dropped below 400,000 for the first time since March of last year — marking a new pandemic low, the feds said Thursday.

Initial worker filings for jobless claims, seen as a signal of layoffs, reached 385,000 last week, down from 406,000 reported the prior week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department. It’s the fifth consecutive week of steady declines, but initial claims still remain substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels. The country was averaging just over 200,000 new claims per week in 2019.