US Jobless Claims Reset to Downside With Near 55-Year Low in Weekly Filing - Labor Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2022) US jobless claims resumed their downward trend with a 3% decline last week that some economists said marked a near 55-year low, after the previous week's surprise rise that jarred with the trends in a bustling employment market, the Labor Department latest data showed.

"In the week ending April 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 166,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised level," a news release from the Labor Department said Thursday.

In the previous week to March 26, jobless claims rose for the first time in three weeks, rising by an unexpected 14,000 from the previous week.

That jarred with employment trends seen in recent months as the US labor market went from strength to strength with the economic recovery from the 2020 outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that initially decimated jobs growth.

Economists polled by US media had expected claims to average 202,000 last week, or about 40,000 above what the Labor Department reported. Some said the latest number was the lowest in nearly 55 years, though the department itself did not cite any milestone.

For the record, the Labor Department has cited 50-year lows in jobless claims previously, when it reported data for December, when weekly filings stood at juts below 200,000.

"This is a staggeringly-low number and highlights an extremely tight labor market," economist Adam Button said in a post on the forex Live forum, referring to the 166,00 claims reported for the latest week. "It's the lowest since at least 1968, when the US had half the population it does now."

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said in a statement released by the White House that over a four-week period, "fewer Americans had filed jobless claims than at any time in our nation's recorded history."

Joblessness among Americans reached a record high of 14.8% in April 2020, with the loss of some 20 million jobs in the aftermath of the coronavirus breakout. Jobs recovery has, however, been stellar over the past year, with the jobless rate moving down to 3.6% in March. A jobless rate of 4% or below is regarded by the Federal Reserve as "maximum employment."

Aside from ramping job numbers, the United States is experiencing one of the greatest transformations of its employment market as COVID-19 measures upended labor supply and work trends, putting employees' demands above those of employers.