The number of Americans filing jobless claims fell below 1 million for the first time since the height of the pandemic lockdowns in March, when weekly filings surged to an all-time record high of nearly 7 million.
The number of workers filing initial unemployment claims dipped to 963,000 for the week ending Aug. 8, the Labor Department stated in a release (pdf) on Aug. 13. This is a drop of 228,000 from the previous week and the first time in over 20 weeks that this number fell below a million.
