Weekly jobless numbers fall to their lowest level since March

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of weekly U.S. jobless claims dropped last week to 787,000 — the lowest weekly number since the start of the pandemic in mid March.

The weekly number also was 100,000 less than economists expected.

The figure is also less than last week's downwardly revised number of 842,000.

In addition, continuing unemployment also declined last week, dropping by more than 1 million, to a total of 8.37 million. 

The declines are in part the result of out-of-work Americans moving from regular unemployment benefits to the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program. The program offers workers an additional 13 weeks of compensation, following the exhaustion of their initial 26 weeks of regular unemployment.