U.S. weekly jobless claims near 18-month low

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! Finance

U.S. weekly jobless claims near 18-month low

Thu, September 9, 2021, 8:39 AM · 2 min read

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level in nearly 18 months, offering more evidence that job growth was being hindered by labor shortages rather than cooling demand for workers.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 35,000 to a seasonally adjusted 310,000 for the week ended Sept. 4, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

That was the lowest level since mid-March 2020 when mandatory closures of nonessential businesses were enforced to slow the first wave of COVID-19 cases. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 335,000 applications for the latest week.

Claims have dropped from a record 6.149 million in early April 2020. They, however, remain above the 200,000-250,000 range viewed as consistent with healthy labor market conditions.

The claims report, the most timely data on the economy's health, suggested the labor market was holding up, despite a resurgence in infections, driven by the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Rising infections contributed holding back job growth in August, with nonfarm payrolls increasing only 235,000, the smallest gain since January. Payrolls surged 1.053 million in July.

{snip}

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-weekly-jobless-claims-near-123904395.html

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I didn't see an article by Emily McCormick this morning. Here is a placeholder article, ahead of the release:

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ECONOMY U.S. ECONOMY

Jobless Claims Expected to Drop as Employers Retained Workers

Filings for unemployment benefits in U.S. have been trending near pandemic lows since mid-July

By Amara Omeokwe
https://twitter.com/TheAmaraReport
[e-mail]
Sept. 9, 2021 5:30 am ET

Filings for jobless benefits last week are estimated to have fallen and reached a fresh pandemic low, extending a downward trend that has remained intact despite challenges posed by the Delta variant of Covid-19.

Economists expect the Labor Department will report Thursday that initial unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, moved lower in the week ended Sept. 4 to 335,000 from 340,000 during the prior week, when claims fell by 14,000.

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, September 9, 2021

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending September 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 310,000, a decrease of 35,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 5,000 from 340,000 to 345,000. The 4-week moving average was 339,500, a decrease of 16,750 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 1,250 from 355,000 to 356,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.0 percent for the week ending August 28, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 28 was 2,783,000, a decrease of 22,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 14, 2020 when it was 1,770,000. The previous week's level was revised up 57,000 from 2,748,000 to 2,805,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,840,250, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020 when it was 2,071,750. The previous week's average was revised up by 14,250 from 2,855,000 to 2,869,250.

{snip}

UNADJUSTED DATA

{snip. Emphasis mine}

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending August 21 was 11,930,415, a decrease of 255,757 from the previous week. There were 30,427,090 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

{snip the rest of the twelve-page news release, until the end}

Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 21-1631-NAT

Program Contacts:
Thomas Stengle: [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]

[Dopers_Greed]

2. B-b-b-b-b-but the M$M says the economy is bad

The liars were blasting Biden last week for "disappointing jobs numbers".

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. That's because the jobs number was disappointing. It came in far below expectations.

Here's what some guy named Joe Biden had to say, in his remarks last Friday on that day's jobs report. I pulled the remarks from here:

Sun Sep 5, 2021: Another updated schedule:

I know some wanted to see a larger number today, and so did I, ...

I know people were looking, and I was hoping, for a higher number.

Source: https://factba.se/biden/transcript/joe-biden-remarks-august-2021-jobs-report-september-3-2021