NATIONWIDE — According to figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor, 860,000 Americans filed for unemployment claims last week, the lowest figure since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
While down slightly from the week before, the figure is still significantly higher than the pre-pandemic record of 695,000 set in 1982.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the number of Americans applying for jobless aid had never exceeded 700,000 in a week. They’ve topped 700,000 for 26 straight weeks.
The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. jobless claims fell by 33,000 from the previous week and that 12.6 million are collecting traditional unemployment benefits, compared with just 1.7 million a year ago.
The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, collapsed at an annual rate of 31.7% from April through June, by far the worst three months on record, as millions of jobs disappeared.
The economy and job market have recovered somewhat from the initial shock. Employers added 10.6 million jobs from May through August, but that’s still less than half the jobs lost in March and April.
The recovery remains fragile, imperiled by continuing COVID-19 infections as schools begin to reopen, and the failure to deliver another economic rescue package in Washington.
Altogether, the Labor Department said that 29.8 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits, though the figure may be inflated by double-counting by states. Analysts also worry about evidence that the number of people collecting special pandemic aid has been swollen by cases of fraud in California.
A summertime resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the South and West forced many businesses to close again in July — though the data firm Womply finds that closings have mostly stabilized over the last few weeks. Womply did find a sharp increase in spending at bars in southern and western states, including South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, as college students returned to campus.
Unemployment claims “remain high even as economic activity is resuming more fully,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote Thursday. “The risk going forward continues to come from virus outbreaks and intermittent interruptions to activity. Overall, the labor market is less weak compared to April but remains at risk of permanent damage from repeated closures.″
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
