730,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Benefits Last Week

 

The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment statistics on Thursday. It showed that 730,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on February 20th. That's the lowest figure in more than two months, but it's still far too high. Before the pandemic was out of control the number was around 220,000 to 260,000. We still need to get control of the pandemic before we can fix our economy.

Here is the official statement from the Labor Department:

In the week ending February 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 730,000, a decrease of 111,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 20,000 from 861,000 to 841,000. The 4-week moving average was 807,750, a decrease of 20,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 5,000 from 833,250 to 828,250.