New applications for US unemployment benefits plunged last week to their lowest level in 52 years, a sign of further progress in the labour market’s uneven recovery from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.
State unemployment offices received 184,000 initial jobless claims on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending December 4, the lowest level since September 6 1969, the US labour department said on Thursday.
That was a decrease of 43,000 from the previous week, according to the government agency, and below the 215,000 that had been expected in a Refinitiv poll of economists. Economists have cautioned that claims data are subject to seasonal fluctuations over the holiday period that can distort weekly readings.