The number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits sank by 6,000 to 189,000 in the final week of October, tying the July 18 reading that was the lowest level of claims since 1969.
The four-week average of initial claims, which economists look to for the underlying trend in the labor market, fell to 194,750, down from 225,500 a year ago, a decline of 13.6 percent. This matches the reading at the end of September, which was also the lowest since 1969.
Claims are far below the pre-pandemic level. Initial claims averaged 217,712 in 2019, and the lowest single week that year was 196,000. In other words, over the past month, the U.S. has averaged fewer new claims than it recorded in the best week of 2019.
Initial jobless claims averaged 208,068 per week through October 31, the lowest year-to-date average since 1969. Comparing the first 44 weeks of every year in the Labor Department's series, which begins in 1967, only 1968 and 1969 had fewer claims.
Continuing claims tell a similar story over the past year, despite an uptick in the latest week. In the week ended October 24, 1.718 million people claimed another week of benefits, up 23,000 from the week before but 244,000 fewer than a year earlier. The share of covered workers collecting benefits fell from 1.3 percent to 1.1 percent over that span.
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