For the first time in 20 weeks, the number of Americans filing new weekly jobless claims was less than 1 million.
According to new figures released Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Labor, 963,000 Americans filed jobless claims last week, a decrease of 228,000 from the previous week of 1,191,000.
The nation’s unemployment rate was 10.6% for the week ending Aug. 1, down 0.4 point from the previous week.
Though the rate of applications for unemployment benefits has reached its lowest point since March, it had exceeded 1 million for 20 consecutive weeks until Thursday.
The decline suggests that layoffs are slowing, though last week's figure still exceeds the pre-pandemic record of just under 700,000.
Fewer people are also continuing to receive state jobless aid. That figure dropped to 15.5 million, from 16.1 million the previous week.
For months, the unemployed had also been receiving the $600 a week in federal jobless aid on top of their state benefit. But the federal payment has expired, and negotiations in Congress to extend that benefit, likely at a lower level of payment, have collapsed in rancor.
Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that would provide $300 a week in federal aid to the jobless to replace the expired $600-a-week benefit. But experts say it would take weeks for the states to implement that payment.
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In addition to people who applied last week for state benefits, nearly 489,000 others sought jobless aid under a new program that has made self-employed and gig workers eligible for the first time. That figure isn’t adjusted for seasonal trends, so it’s reported separately.
After the pandemic hit, Congress approved a $2 trillion aid package. Among other things, it provided the $600-a-week benefit and made self-employed and gig workers newly eligible for unemployment aid.
Both programs required the states to create new processing systems while handling a crush of benefit applications. That influx resulted in huge backlogs and left millions of the unemployed frustrated by their inability to access benefits. Washington state, for one, eventually called in National Guard troops to help process applications.
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