Jobless claims set fresh pandemic-era low of 267,000 last week

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims set fresh pandemic-era low of 267,000 last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Wed, November 10, 2021, 8:31 AM

New weekly jobless claims touched a fresh pandemic-era low yet again this week, as labor shortages and companies' efforts to bring on and retain workers, helping to put a cap on the pace of firings and other separations.

The Labor Department released its jobless claims report Wednesday morning, or a day earlier than usual due to the Veterans Day holiday on Thursday. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 5: 267,000 vs. 260,000 expected and a revised 271,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended October 30: 2.160 million vs. 2.050 million expected and a revised 2.101 million during prior week

Though claims were a touch higher than expected, they still held below the psychologically important 300,000 level for a fifth straight week and reached their lowest level since March 2020, taking out last week's pandemic-era low. New claims have been coming in at less than half their rate from this time last year, when claims were averaging more than 700,000 per week.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-november-5-2021-190316751.html

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Here's her placeholder article, from yesterday:

Placeholder article, jobless claims, Nov. 10

Yahoo Finance
Jobless claims preview: Another 260,000 individuals likely filed new claims last week

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-november-5-2021-190316751.html

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Tue, November 9, 2021, 2:03 PM·4 min read

New weekly jobless claims are expected to touch a fresh pandemic-era low yet again this week, as labor shortages and companies' efforts to bring on and retain workers, helping to put a cap on the pace of firings and other separations.

The Labor Department is set to release its jobless claims report Wednesday morning, or a day earlier than usual due to the Veterans Day holiday on Thursday. Here are the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 5: 260,000 expected vs. 269,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended October 30: 2.050 million expected vs. 2.105 million during prior week

New jobless claims are expected to hold below the psychologically important 300,000 level for a fifth straight week and reach their lowest level since March 2020, taking out last week's pandemic-era low. New claims have been coming in at less than half their rate from this time last year, when claims were averaging more than 700,000 per week.

The total number of claimants across all programs has also fallen precipitously, and last reached 2.67 million for the week ended Oct. 16. This metric, which encompasses those claiming both regular state continuing claims and benefits from programs, has fallen sharply since early September, when federal pandemic-era enhanced unemployment benefits expired at the national level. Total claimants across all programs totaled well over 20 million in the comparable period last year.

Although the labor market as a whole has yet to reach its pre-pandemic conditions, many signs have pointed to a pick-up in labor activity. Last week's October jobs report showed a better-than-expected 531,000 non-farm payrolls came back last month, or the most since July. But although payrolls have grown in every month so far in 2021, the economy is still more than 4 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels following plunges in employment between March and April 2020. And as of last month, the civilian labor force was still down by nearly 3 million individuals, compared to February 2020.

The total number of claimants across all programs has also fallen precipitously, and last reached 2.67 million for the week ended Oct. 16. This metric, which encompasses those claiming both regular state continuing claims and benefits from programs, has fallen sharply since early September, when federal pandemic-era enhanced unemployment benefits expired at the national level. Total claimants across all programs totaled well over 20 million in the comparable period last year.

Although the labor market as a whole has yet to reach its pre-pandemic conditions, many signs have pointed to a pick-up in labor activity. Last week's October jobs report showed a better-than-expected 531,000 non-farm payrolls came back last month, or the most since July. But although payrolls have grown in every month so far in 2021, the economy is still more than 4 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels following plunges in employment between March and April 2020. And as of last month, the civilian labor force was still down by nearly 3 million individuals, compared to February 2020.

Labor supply challenges have been especially onerous. In the past several weeks alone, an array of companies — from Hyatt (H) to Yum! Brands (YUM) and Whirlpool (WHR), among many others — have cited difficulties in hiring enough workers to meet consumer dem

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[underpants]

1. Definitely Democrats in disarray

Sorry couldn’t help myself

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. From the source:

Last edited Thu Nov 18, 2021, 09:38 AM - Edit history (1)

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) Wednesday, November 10, 2021

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending November 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 267,000, a decrease of 4,000 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 2,000 from 269,000 to 271,000. The 4-week moving average was 278,000, a decrease of 7,250 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 500 from 284,750 to 285,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.6 percent for the week ending October 30, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending October 30 was 2,160,000, an increase of 59,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 4,000 from 2,105,000 to 2,101,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,245,000, a decrease of 110,750 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 down by 1,000 from 2,356,750 to 2,355,750.

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UNADJUSTED DATA

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The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending October 23 was 2,565,853, a decrease of 107,095 from the previous week. There were 21,713,655 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
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Release Number: USDL 21-2008-NAT

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