Weekly Jobless Claims Plunge to Level Not Seen Since 1969

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The number of workers applying for unemployment benefits in the United States dropped sharply last week to a level not seen in over 50 years, suggesting businesses were holding on to employees amid a tight labor market.

First-time filings for unemployment insuranceโ€”a proxy for layoffsโ€”came in at 199,000ย for the week ending Nov. 19, the Labor Department said in a report (pdf). Thatโ€™s a drop of 71,000 from the prior weekโ€™s revised level of 270,000 and well-belowย consensus forecastsย of 260,000.

Besides notching a fresh pandemic-era low and marking the eighth straight week of declines, Wednesdayโ€™s jobless claims number is also the lowest since Nov. 15, 1969, when there were 197,000 filings.

โ€œIt is fair to say that we didnโ€™t see that coming. Getting new claims below the 200,000 level for the first time since the pandemic began is truly significant, portraying further improvement,โ€ Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

โ€œAmericans head into the heart of the holiday season with a reasonable expectation that an already tight job market will continue to tighten in the months ahead,โ€ he added.

The strong jobless claims data comes as businesses continue to report hiring difficulties, with the most recent report from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) showing that a net 44 percent of small-business owners reported boosting wages to attract and retain staff, the highest reading in the 48-year history of the series.

โ€œOne of the biggest problems for small businesses is the lack of workers for unfilled positions and inventory shortages, which will continue to be a problem during the holiday season,โ€ย NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelbergย said in a statementย earlier in November.

Average hourly earnings rose 4.9 percent in the year through October, a faster pace of wage growth than the 4.6 percent year-on-year increase last month, the Labor Department said in a Nov. 10 release (pdf).ย Still, with over-the-year consumer price inflation in October running at 6.2 percent, wages actually contracted by around 1.3 percent in real terms.

Byย Tom Ozimek

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