Jobless claims plummet in final week of federal unemployment aid

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped sharply last week just days before several pandemic jobless aid programs were set to expire, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.

In the week ending Sept. 4, seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 310,000, falling by 35,000 to the lowest level since March 14, 2020. Claims are now less than 100,000 above the 225,500 total seen in the final week before COVID-19 upended the global economy.

On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, claims totaled 284,287, falling 8,005 from the previous week.

Another 96,198 workers applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) last week, a pandemic jobless aid program for gig workers and contractors.

The new claims data comes shortly after roughly 9 million people lost their federal unemployment benefits Monday with the expiration of PUA, the $300 weekly supplement offered through Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) and an additional 53 weeks of benefits offered through Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) for those whose state benefits ran out.

As of Aug. 21., the most recent week of data, there were nearly 5.1 million Americans receiving PUA and 3.8 million Americans receiving PEUC, making up almost 9 million of the 11.9 million Americans receiving some type of unemployment aid that week.