Weekly jobless claims in the United States continued to decline in mid-October, hitting a new low since the start of the pandemic, a sign that the economy is leaving behind the Delta wave of the virus.
290,000 new requests
Between October 10 and 17, 290,000 people registered as unemployed to receive an allowance, 6,000 less than the previous week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
Registrations were passed last week, for the first time since March 2020, below the 300,000 mark. Barely however, according to the revised data up a small increase, since there were 296,000 registrations.
Mid-March 2020, just before the implementation of the first containment measures, 256,000 registrations had been recorded. In 2019, around 220,000 were recorded per week on average.
Decrease in the total number of beneficiaries
The total number of unemployment benefit recipients fell to 3.2 million people at the end of September, according to the most recent data, also released on Thursday, down (-369,992) compared to the previous week.
By comparison, nearly 24 million people were receiving an allowance last year around the same time.
Since the beginning of September, many unemployed people, long-term unemployed or self-employed, are no longer entitled to an allowance, which has sharply reduced the total number of beneficiaries, which was still 12 million at the end of August.
Employers, for their part, are struggling to recruit, especially for the lowest-paying jobs, as some 3 million people have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic. There have been many retirements in particular.
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