US unemployment claims drop to lowest level of lockdown

The number of Americans filing a new claim for unemployment benefits dropped below a million for the second time since the start of the pandemic.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 130,000 to a seasonally adjusted 881,000 for the week ending Aug 29, according to figures from the US Labor Department.

However, Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics said the fall was due more to a change in how the Labor Department seasonally adjusted its data than an improvement in the labour market.

Non-seasonally adjusted claims increased by 151,674 to 759,482 people from the week before.

“The data show that layoffs remain widespread and the recovery in the labor market is occurring at a frustratingly slow pace,” she said. “Seasonally adjusted or not, a lot of people are still out of work.”

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