Weekly jobless claims came in slightly lower than expected last week, although earnings in the US remain sluggish.
Unemployment claims for the first time totaled 779,000 for the week ended Jan. 30, the Labor Department said Thursday. This was below the estimated 830,000 economists surveyed by the Dow Jones.
This was the lowest week for damage since November 28, as the US economy continues its slow recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The total was a decrease of 33,000 from the revised number down from 812,000 the previous week.
Continued demand also continued to fall, from 193,000 to 4.6 million in the previous reporting week. The peak of the pandemic period for continuous applications was 24.9 million at the beginning of May 2020. The data on continuous applications are one week ago with the applications for the first time.
In addition, the total number of recipients of benefits decreased sharply, falling by almost half a million to 17.8 million. This reflects a continuing decline in those benefiting from pandemic programs, which have been slightly offset by those with extended benefits.
With unemployment still high, the Biden administration is working on a plan to go through additional incentive controls for Americans, as well as increased compensation.
Last week’s drop in complaints was largely due to a decline of more than 55,000 in Illinois, although much of that decline was offset by a gain of more than 46,000 in California, according to unadjusted figures.
The report comes ahead of the Labor Department’s launch on Friday to publish the number of non-farm payrolls for January. The Dow Jones estimate for this total is 50,000, with the unemployment rate remaining constant at 6.7%.
Although the recovery of the workforce has a long way to go, there have been some encouraging signs lately. Both ISM reports on production and services indicated that companies were adding workers, while the number of ADP private wages released on Wednesday showed a better-than-expected increase of 174,000.