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Unemployment Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since Beginning of COVID-19 Pandemic Last Year The claims decreased to 293,000 last week, as compared with 329,000 a week earlier, the agency said. The four-week moving average for unemployment claims fell to 334,250-the lowest since March 2020.

By The Epoch Times

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Initial jobless claims dropped below 300,000 for the first time since the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns were commonplace, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The claims, which analysts often tie to layoffs, decreased to 293,000 last week, as compared with 329,000 a week earlier, the agency said. The four-week moving average for unemployment claims fell to 334,250—the lowest since March 2020.

Overall, approximately 3.6 million people were getting some sort of jobless benefits during the last week of September.

Before the pandemic, weekly unemployment claims usually lingered at around 200,000 and 250,000.

The federal government reported last Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by only 194,000 jobs in September, the fewest in nine months. The cooling in employment growth is mostly due to a dearth of workers as well as skills mismatch, with government data on Tuesday showing there were 10.4 million job openings at the end of August.

Labor shortage associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is also prevalent in other economies. With COVID-19 infections driven by the Delta variant declining and schools fully reopened for in-person learning, there is hope that more Americans will rejoin the labor force.

"Employers are trying to figure out how to attract job seekers, and it's challenging," said AnnElizabeth Konkel, with the job website Indeed, said in an interview.

At the same time, data shows that Americans are quitting their jobs at record levels. According to the Labor Department in a report this week, approximately 4.3 million workers quit their jobs in August, which is the highest on record tracing back to 2000.

Workers who voluntarily quit their jobs are not eligible for unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, workers quitting their jobs means that employers may not need to lay off other employees—which would then drive down unemployment claims.

The historically high rates at which Americans are quitting their jobs is a sign of worker confidence in the job market.

The quits report released by the Labor Department earlier this week "shows employers and workers were anxious about the rising Delta COVID-19 wave two months ago," Robert Frick, corporate economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union said in a note obtained by several news outlets. "Workers quit, especially in retail, at a record rate to avoid exposure to possible infection. Job openings dropped, especially in leisure and hospitality, as travel dropped markedly due to Delta," Frick added.

Meanwhile, the labor crunch could diminish even more in the coming months after the expiration of expanded unemployment benefits in early September.

The scarcity of labor has triggered bottlenecks in the global supply chain as there are fewer employees to ship goods to markets and produce raw materials.

Reuters contributed to this report.

By Jack Phillips

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York.

The Epoch Times, founded in 2000, is headquartered in Manhattan, New York, with a mission to provide independent and accurate information free of political bias or corporate influence. The organization was established in response to censorship within China and a lack of global awareness regarding the Chinese regime's repression of the spiritual practice Falun Gong.

The Epoch Times is a widely read newspaper that is distributed in 33 countries and is available in 21 languages. The publication has been critical in providing balanced and detailed reporting on major global events such as the 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis. Notably, the organization has played a key role in exposing corruption inside China.

Aside from its human rights coverage, The Epoch Times has made significant contributions in a variety of fields. It has received praise for its in-depth analysis and expert perspectives on business, the economy and U.S. politics. The newspaper has also received praise for its broad coverage of these topics.

A series of editorials titled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" appeared in The Epoch Times in 2004. It asserts that freedom and prosperity in China can only be achieved by eliminating the Communist Party, which violated China's cultural and spiritual values. In addition, the organization led the Tuidang movement, which resulted in over 400 million Chinese citizens quitting the Communist Party. In spite of this, 90% of websites referring to the "Nine Commentaries" were blocked by the Chinese regime.

The Epoch Times has been at the forefront of investigating high-level corruption cases within the Chinese regime, with its reporters taking significant risks to uncover these stories. The organization has received several awards for its investigative journalism.

The organization has received several awards for its investigative journalism. For more, visit www.theepochtimes.com.

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