The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, declined by 2,000, to 253,250, after rising for five straight weeks as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spread, disrupting business in many parts of the U.S.
The government’s report Friday also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and December by a combined 709,000.
The latest government figures show that the surprisingly strong labor market last month extended to parts of the workforce that usually take longer to draw in.
After three consecutive weeks of unemployment claims that appeared to rise in tandem with omicron, fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits for the second week in a row.
About 4.3 million people quit their jobs in December, down from a record of 4.5 million in November. Still, far more Americans are leaving their jobs than before the pandemic.
However, the state’s labor force participation rate also fell, drooping from 62.5% in November to 62.4% in December—a near-record low for at least the last 45 years.
Jobless claims rose for the third straight week—by 55,000, to 286,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The jump in claims marked the biggest one-week increase since mid-July.
The weekly applications, a proxy for layoffs, have risen in four of the last five weeks, a period that runs in tandem with the spread of the omicron variant.
Wages also rose sharply, a sign that companies are competing fiercely to fill their open jobs. A record-high wave of quitting, as many workers seek better jobs, is also fueling pay raises.
Economists estimated that employers added 400,000 jobs last month, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. That would mark an increase from 210,000 in November.
Employers hired 6.7 million people in November, up from 6.5 million in October, the Labor Department reported Tuesday in its monthly Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
The four-week average of unemployment claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell to just above 199,000, the lowest level since October 1969.
The economy has seldom seen such a mismatch between so much demand for workers and so few people willing to work.
The Labor Department has reported about $87 billion in unemployment benefits could have been paid improperly, with a significant portion attributable to fraud.
However, the state’s labor force participation rate also fell, drooping from 62.7% in October to 62.5% in November—a near-record low for at least the last 46 years.
The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell by 16,000, to less than 204,000, the lowest level since mid-November 1969, according Department of Labor figures released Thursday.
The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, fell below 219,000, lowest since the pandemic hit the United States in March 2020.
The figures from the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS, show that with so many companies chasing relatively few unemployed people, job-seekers have the most bargaining power they have had in at least two decades.
Overall, the November jobs figures point to a job market and an economic recovery that look resilient though under threat from a spike in inflation, shortages of workers and supplies and the potential impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, fell below 239,000, a pandemic low.
