The data from
the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for
unemployment reduced last week to the lowest level since the U.S. economy went
into lockdown made to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but still remained evaluated
even as all states had reopened to various extents.
According to
the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled 1,508,000 for
the week ended June 13. That brings the number of job losses over the past thirteen
weeks (since the U.S. went into coronavirus lockdown in mid-March) to more than
45.7 million.
Economists had
expected 1,300,000 new claims last week.
Claims for the
prior week were revised upwardly to 1,566,000 from the initial estimate of 1,542,000.
Meanwhile, the
four-week moving average of claims fell to 1,773,500 from a revised 2,008,000
in the previous week.
Continuing
claims decreased to 20,544,000 million from 20,606,000 in the previous week.