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First time jobless benefit claims fall to lowest point since May

Thousands of job-seekers swarmed the site of Amazon's future headquarters at a "career day" in Crystal City, Virginia on September 17, 2019. First-time job claims fell to its lowest point since May. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI
Thousands of job-seekers swarmed the site of Amazon's future headquarters at a "career day" in Crystal City, Virginia on September 17, 2019. First-time job claims fell to its lowest point since May. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 31 (UPI) -- People filing for weekly unemployment benefits for the first reached a seasonally adjusted 216,000 last week, falling to its lowest total since May three weeks after reaching a 2024 high.

The first-time benefit applications for the week ending Oct. 26 were 12,000 fewer than the revised total of 228,000 from the week before. The filing is a figure watched by the Federal Reserve as a snapshot of the country's workforce stability.

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The 216,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance were the lowest since the week ending May 18 when 216,000 also applied for benefits for the first time. On Oct. 5, 260,000 made unemployment claims initially, marking the highest total of 2024.

The four-week moving average for first-time applicants was 236,500, a drop of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 238,750.

The overall total of people applying for unemployment insurance for the week ending Oct. 19, according to the Labor Department, was 1.9 million, a drop of 26,000 from the previous week.

The four-week moving average of total jobless claims sent the same week was 1,869,250, an increase of 10,750 from the previous week.

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