People line up outside a newly reopened career center for in-person appointments in Louisville, U.S., April 15, 2021.
Amira Karaoud/Reuters
- Jobless claims were unchanged at 205,000 last week.
- The sum landed exactly at the median economist forecast of 205,000 claims.
- Continuing claims fell to 1.86 million for the week that ended December 11, missing the estimate of 1.84 million.
Filings for unemployment benefits were unchanged last week, signaling a steadiness as the unemployment picture increasingly resembles a full recovery.
Jobless claims were unchanged at 205,000 last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That landed exactly at the median forecast of 205,000 claims from economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The previous week’s sum was revised to 205,000 from 206,000. That was a jump from the 188,000 figure weeks earlier, which was the lowest count since 1969.
Claims have fluctuated around 200,000 in the last few weeks, the same threshold that filings averaged before the pandemic. Though the labor market hasn’t entirely healed yet, the steady decline is an encouraging sign that fewer people are being laid off.
Continuing claims, which count Americans receiving ongoing unemployment insurance, slid to 1.86 million for the week that ended December 11, a decrease from the revised level for the previous week, of 1.87 million. The median forecast was for a decline to 1.84 million. Thursday’s reading is the lowest since March 14, when it was 1,77 million, according to the BLS.
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