US weekly jobless claims fall to pandemic-era low

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to 684,00 from 781,000 the week before.

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to 684,000, the fewest since the coronavirus pandemic erupted a year ago and a sign that the economy is improving. Thursday’s report from the US Department of Labor showed that jobless claims fell from 781,000 the week before. It is the first time that weekly applications for jobless aid have fallen below 700,000 since mid-March of last year. Before the pandemic tore through the economy, applications had never topped that level. Still, a total of 18.9 million people are continuing to collect jobless benefits, up from 18.2 million in the previous week. Roughly one-third of those recipients are in extended federal aid programmes, which means they’ve been unemployed for at least six months.