US Jobless Benefit Claims Eased Slightly Last Week

WASHINGTON - Jobless benefit claims eased marginally in the United States last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The world’s biggest economy is on a path toward recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, but even so, 411,000 newly laid-off workers filed for unemployment compensation last week, down 7,000 from the revised figure of the week before, the agency said. It was the second straight week that the weekly figure topped 400,000, and the number remains well above the weekly average of less than 300,000 in 2019 before the pandemic swept into the U.S. in March 2020.