US weekly jobless claims hit fresh pandemic low of 269,000

• Filings for unemployment insurance fell to 269,000 last week, setting a fresh pandemic low.
• That beat the median estimate of 275,000 claims from economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, placing jobless claims at yet another pandemic low.

Jobless claims totaled 269,000 last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday morning. That beat the median estimate of 275,000 claims from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It also marked a fourth consecutive week that initial claims hit a pandemic-era low.

The previous week's count was updated to 283,000 from 281,000.

Continuing claims - which count Americans filing for continued unemployment insurance - fell to 2.11 million for the week that ended October 23. Economists expected claims to total 2.12 million. That also set a new pandemic low.

Initial and continuing claims continue to slide lower as the broader recovery charges forward. The steady declines signal that hiring picked up through October and that layoffs were less frequent. And although both measures sit well above their pre-crisis averages, they're closing in on levels seen just before COVID struck.

For initial claims, when the weekly reading slides below 212,000, that will mark a return to the weekly counts seen before the pandemic hit the US. Similarly, continuing claims need to hit about 1.7 million to signal a complete recovery.

The steady declines across both measures join other encouraging reads of the labor market's recovery. ADP's monthly employment report showed the US private sector adding 571,000 jobs in October. That easily beat the median estimate of a 400,000-payroll gain and showed hiring picking up from September's pace. The print signals the hiring recovery likely improved last month as the Delta wave faded and holiday-season shopping began.

Economists will get their best look at October hiring on Friday. The government is set to publish its nonfarm payrolls report at the end of the work week, and experts expect hiring to sharply accelerate to 450,000 new jobs. That would more than double the disappointing September gain of 193,000 payrolls. They also forecast the unemployment rate will drop to 4.7% from 4.8%.

Overall job growth is further from staging a full recovery than initial claims. But with case counts continuing to decline, the US could soon repeat the hiring boom seen through the summer.