Jobless claims drop slightly

WASHINGTON—Thursday’s report from the U.S. Department of Labor showed almost 1.2 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Although that number represents a 15 percent drop from the week before and the lowest since the beginning of coronavirus-related lockdowns, it marks the 20th straight week more than a million Americans have applied for unemployment. During the Great Recession in the early 2000s, weekly jobless claims never topped 700,000.

Is the job market recovering? Many states have reinstituted restrictions on businesses in the past month after COVID-19 cases increased in some areas, so not everyone can return to work yet. On Friday, the government’s $600 weekly unemployment bonus expired, which could put more strain on Americans who are still jobless.

Dig deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher and David Bahnsen discuss the state of the economy on The World and Everything in It.