The variety of Individuals submitting for jobless advantages fell modestly final week, remaining within the traditionally low vary for the reason that U.S. economic system emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Functions for unemployment advantages for the week ending Aug. 9 fell by 3,000 to 224,000, the Labor Division reported Thursday. That’s under the 230,000 new purposes that economists had forecast.
Weekly purposes for jobless advantages are seen as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and have largely settled in a traditionally wholesome vary between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economic system within the spring of 2020.
Thursday’s report confirmed that the four-week common of claims, which smooths out a number of the week-to-week volatility, ticked up by 750 to 221,750.
The entire variety of Individuals amassing unemployment advantages for the earlier week of Aug. 2 fell by 15,000 to 1.96 million.
