US Jobless Claims Dip On Week, But Stay Above 400,000 - Labor Dept.

The number of jobless benefits claims in the United States fell by 7,000 last week, but overall claims remained above the 400,000 mark, the US Labor Department said on Thursday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2021) The number of jobless benefits claims in the United States fell by 7,000 last week, but overall claims remained above the 400,000 mark, the US Labor Department said on Thursday.

"In the week ending June 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 411,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level," the Labor Department said in a statement. "The previous week's level was revised up by 6,000 from 412,000 to 418,000."

Weekly jobless claims had fallen below the 400,000 level in two previous weeks to lows seen before the coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.

But filings increased the 400,000 mark last week, signaling further challenges for labor market recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Economists polled by US media had forecast just 380,000 jobless claims.

Continuing claims for the week that ended on June 12 - reported with a one-week lag - stood at 3.39 million versus the 3.53 million reading for the week ending on June 5. That brought the weekly reading for unemployment down by 0.1 percent to 2.5 percent.

The Labor Department said there were only 559,000 job additions for all of May, at least 90,000 below economists' estimates.