Weekly jobless claims fall to 787K

The seasonally adjusted number of Americans who filed their first claims for unemployment insurance fell to 787,000 in the week that ended on Oct. 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Initial weekly jobless claims fell by 55,000 applications from the previous week’s revised total of 842,000. The Labor Department initially reported a total of 898,000 initial weekly claims for the week ending Oct. 10, but revised that figure down by 56,000 claims.

The seasonally adjusted number of initial claims last week came in well below economists’ projections of roughly 860,000 new applications, likely due to the large revision down from the previous week’s total. The unadjusted number of claims also fell to 756,617, falling 73,125 from the prior week.

Last week marked the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that initial weekly claims fell below 800,000, but remain staggeringly above historic highs. The seasonally adjusted average monthly total of claims was 811,250 for the past four weeks, compared to 215,250 during the same time in 2019.

More than 345,440 workers also applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program created to cover contractors and others not eligible for traditional jobless benefits, rising 8,200 from the previous week.

While a step in the right direction, the new data underscores the risks facing unemployed Americans and the U.S. economy broadly if the Trump administration and Congress fail to agree on another round of coronavirus relief.

Economists across the ideological spectrum have warned that the recovery from the coronavirus recession could grind to a halt without further support for millions of workers who may take months to find new jobs as well as businesses that are facing bankruptcy. Roughly 23 million Americans are currently on some form of unemployment aid.