Jobless claims: Another 199,000 individuals filed new claims last week

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Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims: Another 199,000 individuals filed new claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Wed, November 24, 2021, 8:31 AM

New jobless claims fell far more than expected to set a fresh pandemic-era low last week, underscoring the present tight labor market conditions as initial unemployment claims near 2019 levels while job openings hold near record highs.

The Labor Department released its jobless claims report on Wednesday, a day earlier than usual due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 20: 199,000 vs. 260,000 expected and 268,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended November 13: 2.049 million vs. 2.033 million expected and 2.080 million during prior week

The total number of new weekly filings fell to a fresh virus-era low for a seventh straight week. During the comparable week last year, initial filings came at well over 700,000. Claims also fell below their 2019 weekly average of approximately 220,000.

Continuing claims for regular state unemployment benefits have also drawn closer to pre-virus levels. After coming in at the lowest level since March 2020 last week, continuing claims also neared their 2019 average rate of about 1.7 million per week.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-november-20-2021-175525622.html

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This morning's banner:

JUST IN
U.S. jobless claims hit new pandemic-era low
New weekly claims fall below 200,000

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Here is the placeholder article from yesterday afternoon:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-november-20-2021-175525622.html

Yahoo Finance
Jobless claims preview: Another 260,000 individual likely filed new claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Tue, November 23, 2021, 12:55 PM

New jobless claims likely set a fresh pandemic-era low last week, underscoring the present tight labor market conditions as initial unemployment claims near 2019 levels while job openings hold near record highs.

The Labor Department is set to release its jobless claims report on Wednesday, a day earlier than usual due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Here were the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Initial unemployment claims, week ended November 20: 260,000 expected and 268,000 during prior week

Continuing claims, week ended November 13: 2.033 million expected and 2.080 million during prior week

The total number of new weekly filings likely fell to a fresh March 2020 low for a seventh straight week. During the comparable week last year, initial filings came at well over 700,000. Still, however, claims are holding stubbornly slightly above the 2019 weekly average for new filings of approximately 220,000.

Continuing claims for regular state unemployment benefits have also drawn closer to pre-virus levels. After coming in at the lowest level since March 2020 last week, continuing claims also neared their 2019 average rate of about 1.7 million per week.

And if this week's jobless claims report comes in as expected with further improvement in both new and continuing claims, it would also bode well for November's monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This week's claims report coincides with the survey week for that data, which is due for release next week. Consensus economists expect that report to show non-farm payrolls rose by half a million in November, with the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.5% from 4.6% in October.

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