US Jobless Benefit Claims Drop for 6th Straight Week

WASHINGTON - New claims for jobless benefits in the United States continued to fall last week, dropping for the sixth straight week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the world’s biggest economy continues its marked recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.   

A total of 376,000 out-of-work employees filed for unemployment compensation, down 9,000 from the revised figure of the week before, the agency said.  The figure was the lowest total since mid-March 2020 when the pandemic first swept into the country and marked the second straight week the weekly total had dropped below 400,000 in more than a year. More than 53% of U.S. adults have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, boosting the economic recovery, although the pace of inoculations has dropped markedly from its peak several weeks ago. Officials in many states are now offering a variety of incentives to entice the unvaccinated to get inoculated, including entry into lucrative lotteries. The continuing drop in the number of jobless benefit claims is linked to more hiring. The U.S. added 559,000 jobs in May, more than twice the 266,000 in April. Still, about 9.3 million people remain unemployed in the U.S., according to the government.    With the steady recovery, many employers are reporting a shortage of workers, particularly for low-wage jobs such as restaurant servers and retail clerks.