Weekly jobless claims fall below 400,000 for first time in over a year; feds report

For the first time in over a year, weekly first-time jobless claims have fallen below 400,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday morning.

The latest number is 385,000 for the week that ended May 29, the lowest it has been since March 14, 2020. The number that week was 256,000, CNBC reports. This is the fifth week in a row that the claims have declined, as the economy appear to be steadily recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in record-high unemployment.

The report looks at first time filing for unemployment benefits, with a high aof 6.1 million in April of 2020 because offices were shutting down to slow the pandemic.

Although the new jobless claims have gone down, the continuing-unemployment claims have risen by 169,000 to 3.77 million. While the numbers are going down, they are still significantly higher than pre-pandemic numbers.

On Friday, the department will release the overall jobs number for many. Economist think the country will have added 677,000 new jobs, compared to 266,000 for April. The Wall Street Journal reports experts anticipate the unemployment rate fell to 5.9% in May, from 6.1% in April.