Initial claims for unemployment benefits reached a total of 348,000 claims last week, down from 377,000 in the previous seven days and the lowest since mid-March 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The moving average for the last four weeks stood at 377,750 initial claims for unemployment benefits, a 19,000 drop from the revised figure for the previous week and the lowest level since mid-March 2020.
For its part, the number of beneficiaries of unemployment benefits in the first week of August fell to 2.82 million, a decrease of 79,000 people compared to the previous week.
This is the lowest level of unemployment insurance beneficiaries since mid-March 2020, when the total number was 1.77 million.
