Unemployment claims fall for the first time in a month as economy gains speed

Fewer U.S. workers applied for jobless aid last week, a sign the job market is recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 Omicron variant as the economy gains speed.

Some 260,000 people filed first-time applications for unemployment aid in the week ended January 22, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's a drop of 30,000 from the prior week, when the number of applications hit a three-month high.

A recent surge in COVID-19 cases has set back what had been a strong comeback from the short but devastating coronavirus recession. Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, had fallen mostly steadily for about a year and late last year dipped below their pre-pandemic average of around 220,000 a week.