U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Drop Less Than Expected

WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back further off their recent record high in the week ended May 2nd, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday, although claims remain at an elevated level and came in above economist estimates.

The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 3.169 million, a decrease of 677,000 from the previous week's revised level of 3.846 million.

Economists had expected jobless claims to tumble to 3.000 million from the 3.839 million originally reported for the previous week.

While jobless claims have declined steadily since hitting a record high of 6.867 million in the week ended March 28th, the total number of new claims since the coronavirus-induced shutdown has now reached 33.5 million.

Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX