US jobless claims fall below 400,000 while private payrolls spike

The number of Americans filing for unemployment dropped to a new coronavirus pandemic low while private-sector employment rose.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped below 400,000 last week for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic started more than a year ago, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) said on Thursday. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totalled 385,000 for the week ended May 29, compared to 405,000 the prior week. “The decline in new claims – down by nearly half since early April – shows that layoffs are receding, while the more stubborn level of continuing claims reminds us that a full recovery of jobs lost during the pandemic will be a more uneven process,” Nancy Vanden Houten and Gregory Daco, economists at Oxford Economics, said in a Thursday note.