While ticking up a bit last week, the number of Americans filing initial unemployment claims remains close to the pandemic low. In the week-ending July 3, roughly 373,000 Americans filed jobless claims for the first time, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That was up by 2,000 claims from the previous week’s level – the pandemic low – which was revised up to 371,000 filings. The U.S. economy has made great strides this year as more Americans got vaccinated and governments eased restrictions on businesses. The entire country is now open with very few restrictions still in place. As the job market has strengthened, the number of weekly applications for unemployment assistance has generally fallen throughout most of 2021. The latest weekly jobless claims are down dramatically from the 2021 high of 904,000 claims filed during the week-ending January 9 and are vastly lower than the historical peak from 2020 when 6.1 million people filed in the week-ending April 4. In the early weeks of 2020, before the pandemic started, the U.S. was consistently logging weekly claims below 220,000. Since the onset of the pandemic, more than 84.9 million Americans have filed initial unemployment insurance claims.
