Number of Americans applying for unemployment drops to new pandemic low
CBSN
The number of Americans filing claims for first-time unemployment benefits fell to a pandemic-era low, showing that the job market continues to strengthen despite the current surge of coronavirus around the country.
Some 348,000 people applied for first-time jobless benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's a drop of 29,000 from the prior week's number, and the lowest since March 14, 2020. There were another 109,000 claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal program for self-employed and gig workers. The latest claims numbers are "encouraging," Ian Shepherson of Pantheon Macroeconomics told investors in a research note. "We expect little change over the next couple weeks, but we hope to see clear new lows in September."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.