WASHINGTON—The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits dropped to a near four-month low last week, but a record 32.9 million people were collecting unemployment checks in the third week of June, supporting expectations the labor market would take years to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Economists cautioned against reading too much into the bigger-than-expected decline in jobless claims reported by the Labor Department on July 9, noting that the period included the July 4 Independence Day. Claims data are volatile around holidays.
