It was slightly lower in the previous week, which was revised more.
Meanwhile, 288,701 workers filed for benefits under the Epidemic Unemployment Assistance Program, which provides assistance to workers like self-employed and contractors. This number is not adjusted for seasonality.
Added together, 1 million Americans filed initial benefit claims on an unfair basis last week.
Persistent unemployment claims stood at 5.5 million.
A Thursday report by the US Government Accountability Office said the Labor Department had not accurately estimated the number of Americans who were claiming benefits. States’ backlogs are historically overloaded with high numbers of applications, contributing to the issue.
Based on this, millions of people may not receive the full unemployment payments they are owed, Gao said.
Economists and legalists have relied on jobless claims data throughout the epidemic because its weekly release schedule is closest to real-time economic data.
This is a developing story. It will be updated
.