Google News
On Thursday, US Labour Department said that the number of Americans filing for first-time state unemployment benefits fell below 500,000 last week for first time since the onset of pandemic outbreak, branding the latest sign of a solid economic recovery in the United States.
Aside from that, other economic data released earlier in the day had unveiled that US-based employers had laid off the lowest number of jobs in nearly 21 years last month, adding to anticipations of another month of ground-breaking job growth in April.
Nonetheless, raising an alarming bell, US Labour Department data had also revealed that the labour market might not be out of the woods yet with more than 16.2 million people had collected unemployment pay-checks as of last week.
However, latest drop in US weekly unemployment claims comes over the heels of a non-farm payroll data released yesterday, which had shown that American employers had created the highest number of jobs in April since September 2020, suggesting the economy would more likely to witness a much stronger labour market recovery over second quarter of the year following a robust job growth in first quarter.
US weekly jobless claims fall to a 14-month low
According to US Labour Department data released earlier on the day, initial jobless claims were dropped 92,000 to a seasonally adjusted 498,000 in the week that ended on May 1, the lowest level since mid-March 2020, with the US state of Virginia, New York and California leading the declines.
Meanwhile, referring to a rapid recovery in US labour market, a chief economist at PNC Financial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gus Faucher said following the announcement, “Although unemployment remains elevated, the labor market is rapidly recovering. ”