The number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment fell to near a pandemic-era low last week, in a sign of ongoing labor market recovery.
Initial filings for unemployment insurance, a proxy for layoffs, came in at 375,000 for the week ending Aug. 7, a drop of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 387,000, the Labor Department said in a statement (pdf). Initial claims hit a pandemic-era low of 368,000 in the week ending July 10 before ticking back up.