2021.11.1813:18:00UTC+00U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Nearly Unchanged At Pandemic-Era Low

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits were nearly unchanged in the week ended November 13th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 268,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 269,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 260,000 from the 267,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the slight decrease and the revision to the previous week's number, jobless claims once again hit their lowest level since the week ended March 14, 2020.

"Initial claims should continue to gradually work their way back toward pre-pandemic levels as employers facing shortages of workers will likely keep layoffs to a minimum," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead Economist at Oxford Economics.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also fell to a new pandemic-era low of 272,750, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average of 278,500.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance also slid by 129,000 to 2.080 million in the week ended November 6th, hitting the lowest level since March of 2020.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dropped to a pandemic-era low of 2,157,250, a decrease of 100,000 from the previous week's revised average of 2,257,250.