The number of new claims for unemployment benefits fell to 576,000 during the week ending 10 April, dropping from the previous week’s revised figure of 769,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported and reaching a low not seen since 14 March 2020, according to Business Insider.
A median forecast by economists Bloomberg called for 700,000 new claims.
The number of people collecting all forms of unemployment payments from all sources dropped from 18.2 million to 16.9 million for the week, the Associated Press reported.
The unemployment rate fell from 6.2 percent to 6, also its lowest since March last year.
The number of out-of-workers already receiving unemployment payments rose to 3.73 million, just above economists’ median estimate of 3.7 million.
The number of unemployment claims filed since the beginning of the pandemic has totaled more than 84 million, according to BI, far more than twice as many as the 37 million during the 18-month depths of the Great Recession.
New claims for unemployment compensation averaged about 220,000 before March 2020, according to government figures.
TRENDPOST: As we have continued to note, with the U.S. government pumping in more money to the unemployed, despite the high unemployment rates, businesses are having difficulty finding employees because they are making more money with government paychecks than they would make if they went back to work.
