U.S. jobless claims dip below 1 million

Illinois filings continue decline, but nation remains well above pre-COVID record

New weekly unemployment claims dipped below 1 million last week for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the economy in March. (Shutterstock)

By Ted Cox

New U.S. unemployment claims dipped below 1 million last week for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the economy in March, but remained well above the previous record.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that 963,000 idled workers filed for benefits last week, down almost a quarter million from the revised figure of 1.2 million who filed the week before. But that was still well over the previous record of 695,000 new claims in a week set during the 1982 recession.

A record 3.3 million jobless claims shattered that record in mid-March, soon topped by the new record of 6.9 million in a week. Weekly filings have generally been on the decline since then but for a couple of weeks of slight increases last month.

New claims filed with the Illinois Department of Employment Security continued their steady decline, down to 22,000 last week from 25,000 the week before. Claims for expanded federal benefits for independent contractors, freelancers, and so-called gig workers also declined from 4,500 to 3,700 — down significantly from the tens of thousands of applications last month, many believed to have been fraudulent due to a nationwide scam to infiltrate the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance system.

The Labor Department reported: “The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 10.6 percent for the week ending August 1, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate.” That was fairly consistent with the July unemployment rate of 10.2 percent reported last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to the department, the total number of people claiming benefits of any sort for the week ending July 25 was 28 million, a decrease of 3 million from the previous week. But there were 1.7 million people on unemployment rolls nationally for the comparable week a year ago.