The number of Americans who filed for new jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 6 dropped for the fourth consecutive week, continuing the downward trend of 2021, but still slightly higher than economists’ expectations.
The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 793,000, down 19,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Thursday (Feb. 11). The previous week’s revised level was increased by 33,000 from 779,000 to 812,000.
Economists polled by Reuters expected 757,000. Other analysts had forecast 760,000, per Yahoo! Finance.
Claims are still way above pre-pandemic levels and higher than the peak of the Great Recession in 2007-08 of 665,000. But the numbers are coming down from the record 6.867 million jobless benefits filed when the pandemic hit in March and shuttered workplaces, schools and nonessential businesses.
“The continued improvement in weekly jobless claims suggests an ongoing recovery in the labor market after a weak patch in December,” Nomura Chief Economist Lewis Alexander said in a recent note, per Yahoo! Finance.
New coronavirus cases declined 25 percent last week, per Reuters, the biggest drop since March. “Infections have now fallen for four consecutive weeks,” according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports.
When the pandemic gripped the nation in March 2020, various economists and analysts predicted that one to four million people would file for jobless claims.
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