Since the start of the health and economic crisis, new jobless-claim filings reached their lowest level last week, providing a sign that hiring is continuing even at a slower pace.
Based on the Labor Department's information on Thursday, compared to the numbers a week earlier, which is at 787,000, and the Dow Jones estimate of 780,000, first-time claims of unemployment benefits only totaled 712,000 last week.
The said numbers marked a decrease from the upwardly revised level of 787,000 a week earlier, which is a drop likely aided by a number of issues associated with the Thanksgiving holiday.
Despite facing the new wave of coronavirus cases, the jobs market has demonstrated resilience.
Claims are off their peak of 6.9 million in late March but remain well above compare to the record before the pandemic.
The containing claims also fell sharply after dropping from 569,000 to 5.52 million.
The information regarding the claims came a day before the Labor Department releases its closely watched nonfarm payrolls report for November.
The estimates of Dow Jones are for 440,000 payroll growth and a decrease of 6.7% in the unemployment rate.
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It is also the first report to came out since the Government Accountability Office shared that the weekly jobless claims numbers have been inaccurate during the global health crisis.
The watchdog agency also pointed out uncounted case backlogs and fraud and other discrepancies at the state level as obstacles in providing a correct count.
According to NBC New York, Based on the recommendation of GAO for the Labor Department to issue a disclaimer regarding the potential inaccuracy of the count, however, none was included in the said report.
Chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, Ian Shepherdson shared in a note that the plunge in initial claims does not refute the idea that the trend is going up, and they are expecting a sharp fall due to the difficulty of adjusting for Thanksgiving.
He also added that initial claims likely would rebound strongly next week, probably rising above the 800K mark for the first time in eight weeks, Footwear News reported.
Claims of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance dropped for the week, as there is a decrease by more than 30,000 to 288,701.
The said program provides benefits to those who are not normally eligible even before the pandemic started.
However, filings are continuously increasing for the emergency pandemic program, which addresses those who have lost their normal benefits.
The overall number increased about 60,000 to 4.57 million for the week that ended November 14, the most recent period when the information is available.
Overall, 20.16 million Americans are currently receiving some benefits, but there is a decrease of 349,633 compared to the previous period, based on the data also through November 14, Yahoo!Money reported.
According to the unadjusted data, states like California, Michigan, and Texas reported the biggest drops at the state level while claims rose in states of Oregon and Illinois.
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