New filings for jobless claims in the U.S. totaled 787,000 last week, the lowest total since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 875,000 for the week ended Oct. 17.
The total reflected a decline of 55,000 from the downwardly revised 842,000 from the previous week. The last time the weekly claims total was lower was the 282,000 on March 14, just before an avalanche of layoffs that occurred in conjunction with efforts to combat the virus.
One reason for the decline in jobless claims has been the migration of workers who have exhausted their regular benefits and have moved to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance emergency compensation program.
That total increased by 509,828 for the week ended Oct. 3 to 3.3 million.
In addition to the substantial drop in the headline number, continuing claims also showed another hefty drop. The level of those getting benefits for at least two weeks dripped by 1.02 million to 8.37 million.
The trend pulled the insured unemployment rate, a simple measure of those collecting benefits against the total labor force, down 0.7 percentage points to 5.7%.
Claims surged in the week of March 21 amid a government-imposed lockdown that impacted businesses across the economic spectrum, particularly in high-contact and service industries such as bars and restaurants, hotels and airlines.
The weekly total peaked at 6.9 million in late March, but the jobless level has remained a problem in the ensuing months. Since May, the economy has recaptured about 11.5 million positions, while still about half those lost during the shutdown remain sidelined.
Opposing factions in Washington have been negotiating another round of stimulus aimed at helping those still impacted. However, key details remain unresolved, and expectations have diminished that a deal will be done before Election Day.
This week’s count resolved one technical issue that had left previous weeks’ totals in question. California had suspended processing claims until it implemented safeguards against fraud and had simply been using the total from the week before it implemented the halt.
The state over the past week reported 158,877 claims, and 176,083 for the prior week, according to data not adjusted for seasonal factors. Those numbers compare to the 225,000 total the state had been using as a placeholder until it resolved the issues with its system, so that helps account for the downward drift to the total for all states.
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