Unemployment Claims Continue to Trend Down

Though weekly unemployment filings remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic norms, claims continue to trend downward. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, during the week-ending November 7 (the most recent reporting period), the number of Americans filing jobless claims hit another pandemic-era low, with 709,000 claims filed. That was down from the 757,000 claims filed the week before. In fact, during the past four reporting periods, less than 800,000 initial claims were filed each week. While weekly claims are now significantly lower than the pandemic high of nearly 7 million filed during the last week of March, these numbers are still well above the pre-pandemic average of less than 220,000 weekly claims for initial jobless benefits filed during the first 11 weeks of 2020.