About 267,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week

The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment statistics on Wednesday (a day early). It showed that about 267,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on November 6th. That's slightly less than last week, and below any weekly number since March of 2020. It marks the fifth week in a row that the number of filers has dropped.

Here is the official Labor Department statement:

In the week ending November 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 267,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 269,000 to 271,000. The 4-week moving average was 278,000, a decrease of 7,250 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 284,750 to 285,250.

NOTE -- While these numbers are looking better, we must remember that the number of workers with a job is still about 4 million less than before the pandemic. Many of these are women and single parents who cannot afford to take a low wage job because of the cost and availability of child care. The Build Back Better bill would fix this, and allow many more workers to enter the work force.