U. S. unemployment claims fall after a month

4.2 million Americans still receive benefits. New jobless claims have fallen for the first time in nearly one month, according to new data released Thursday, offering some break to the U. S. economy after previous worrisome data.

About 326,000 people filed initial jobless claims in the week ending on 2 October , according to the weekly data released Thursday, down by 38,000 from the previous week. Economists were expecting about 345,000 new claims.

Promising signals include the decrease in the number of to about 4.2 million, from about 5 million last week, but the number of Americans receiving benefits is still roughly twice as much as pre-pandemic levels.

Initial claims finally ticked down after three straight weekly increases, though they are still above a pandemic low of 312,000 in the week ending 4 September.

According to the Labor Department, 8.4 million are still unemployed in the United States, markedly higher than the 4 million in February 2020.