In what can clearly be construed as a positive sign that the pandemic is slowly coming to an end, “jobless claims” in the United States have hit a new low since the pandemic started. These “jobless claims” serve as a solid indication of how many employers are laying people off as people seek unemployment benefits. These numbers peaked in July 2020 with nearly 1.5 million jobless claims and have slowly been going down since then. Just to put the number in perspective, the 2019 weekly average for initial jobless claims sat at around 219,000. Now, for the first time since the pandemic started, however, the number for the latest week dipped below 400,000 reaching 385,000.
The numbers, while still high, are an incredibly welcome sight since the world shut down nearly 15 months ago. The trend seems to be continuing rapidly in the right direction too. The numbers are down 35% since late April with every week hitting a new low. The week ending May 1 saw 498,000 new jobless claims, and the week ending May 15 saw 440,000 new jobless claims. Both of these numbers at the time were new lows since the pandemic started. Ian Sheperdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics stated, “[c]laims remain elevated by normal standards, but the downward trend has been relentless in recent months, and a return to the pre-Covid level over the summer seems a decent bet.”
There have also been other promising signs that the economy is headed in the right direction. According to statistics from Indeed.com, one of the top job-search sites, job postings currently are 26% above where they were in February of 2020. Those numbers hit a low at nearly 40% below the February 2020 number in the few months following the start of the pandemic. Furthermore, in March 2021, the rate that people are quitting their jobs reached previous highs seen in 2001 and 2019. This number serves as an indicator of people’s confidence in their ability to find a better job.
There is still a long way to go before considering the economy to be fully recovered. The unemploymeny rate still remains far above the levels seen pre-COVID and there are still 15.4 million Americans receiving unemployment benefits meaning that there are still many people who remain jobless. However, signs seem to be pointing in the right direction and hopefully, we will continue to see new lows with each week that passes.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group Blog. If you are in need of legal help, the CIMA Law Group is a law firm in Phoenix, Arizona which possesses expertise in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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