US weekly jobless claims slide to new pandemic low of 281,000

• Weekly jobless claims dropped to 281,000 last week, marking a new pandemic-era low.
• Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected filings to stay flat at 290,000.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance fell again last week, extending a steady decline through the fall.

Jobless claims totaled 281,000 last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected claims to be unchanged at 290,000. The print marked a fourth straight decline and placed claims at a new pandemic-era low.

The previous week's count was revised to 291,000 from 290,000.

Continuing claims - which track Americans filing for ongoing unemployment benefits - slid to 2.24 million for the week that ended October 16. That beat the median estimate of 2.42 million claims and also marked a new pandemic low.

Weekly claims and continuing claims have both fallen through October to fresh lows, signaling the labor market's recovery has been faring better this month. Both measures had hovered at elevated levels in September as hiring slowed sharply. While claims still sit well above pre-pandemic norms, the latest downtrend suggests they could near their 2020 lows by the end of the year.

While the government's jobless-claims report typically takes center stage on Thursday mornings, the spotlight was squarely on its third-quarter GDP report. Data published Thursday showed the US economy expanding at an annualized rate of 2% through the quarter, falling short of the 2.7% pace forecasted by economists. It also marked the slowest growth of the pandemic recovery.

The slowdown was powered by the Delta variant and the global supply chain crisis. The third quarter saw virus cases rebound as the Delta wave took hold. The virus's resurgence and the renewal of some economic restrictions cut into spending on services and dramatically slowed the hiring recovery.

Separately, a combination of factory backlogs, shipping delays, and supply shortages kept businesses from matching Americans' strong spending. Shipping companies and ports are now working 24/7 to fix widespread logjams, but the worst of the crisis helped pull third-quarter growth to disappointing levels.