Fewer Americans are seeking unemployment assistance
Roughly 267,000 Americans applied for first-time weekly unemployment benefits last week, the lowest level since March of 2020, the Department of Labor reported Wednesday.
Jobless claims have steadily declined in recent months despite rising inflation, weaker consumer spending, supply and worker shortages, and the ongoing impact of the coronavirus. The four-week average is now 278,000, compared with around 225,000 when the disease first erupted in the spring of last year.
"Initial claims should continue to fall back toward pre-pandemic levels as employers facing shortages of workers will likely keep layoffs to a minimum," Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist with Oxford Economics, told investors in a research note. "Continued claims should continue to fall as more individuals return to the labor market and as benefits expire."
During the week ending October 23, nearly 511,000 people filed for pandemic-related unemployment assistance. Nationwide, a total of 2.6 million people were collecting unemployment insurance in the week ending October 23, down 107,000 from the previous week, labor data show.
Hiring picked up speed in October, with employers adding 531,000 jobs. Unemployment around the U.S. fell to to 4.6% — the lowest since March of 2020, when joblessness jumped to 4.4% after COVID-19 started to spread.
Most recent jobless claims — a proxy for layoffs — of late have been due to business closures. But a report last week from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas also showed that more than 5,000 workers were laid off in October because they refused to comply with an employer's requirement to get vaccinated against COVID-19.