WASHINGTON: The number of Americans who filed new claims for unemployed benefits fell to a 19-month low last week, pointing to the tightening labor market, although lack of workers could maintain moderate employment speed in October.
The initial claim for the state unemployment benefits fell 6,000 to 290,000 which was seasonally adjusted for the week ended October 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
It was the lowest level since mid-March by 2020, when the nation was in the early stages of Pandemic Covid-19.
It was also the second week in a row claimed below 300,000 as entrepreneurs adhering to workers in facing acute labor shortages.
Economists surveyed by Reuters have estimated 300,000 claims for the last week.
Claims have declined from a record high of 6.149 million in early April 2020.
Range of 250,000-300,000 for claims is seen as consistent with a healthy labor market.
This pandemic has increased the dynamics of the labor market, which led to 10.4 million surprising job openings at the end of August even because around 7.7 million people were officially unemployed in September.
Various factors have been blamed for termination, including the lack of child care, the benefits of unemployment funded by the federal government, early retirement and career change.
Even though schools have been re-opened for direct learning and expanded unemployment benefits ended in early September, there was no encouragement for the workforce last month.
About 183,000 people come out, lead to a decrease in the level of labor force participation, or the proportion of American working age who have a job or search for one.
“We remain skeptical that the end of the benefits of unemployed unemployed will lead to a substantial and fast return to the workforce in the near future,” said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup in New York.
Claim data includes a period where the government surveys employers for nonfarm payrolls components of employment reports in October.
Submission fell between the September and October survey week, implying a pickup in the growth of employment this month.
However, claims data have not become an indicator of reliable employment growth for the past year due to upheaval caused by a pandemic.
Labor shortages occur in all industries, and cause congestion in the port and reduce production in the factory and leave empty shelves and fan inflation.
The lack of workers is echoed by the Beige Federal Reserve’s book report on anecdotal information about business activities collected from national contacts published on Wednesday, which shows “work increases at a simple moderate level in the past few weeks, because of the demand for high workers, but power growth Work is moistened by a low supply of workers.
“Nonfarm payrolls increased only by 194,000 jobs in September, at least nine months.
The work was 5.0 million jobs below the peak in February 2020.
Lack of workers and raw materials had led economists to anticipate that gross domestic growth slowed to a low annual rate of 0.5% in the third quarter after acceleration at 6.7% April-June Quarter.