US weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level since 1969

Washington, March 25

Initial jobless claims in the US last week fell to 187,000, the lowest level since September 1969, the Labour Department reported.

In the week ending March 19, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased by 28,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 225,000, Xinhua news agency quoted a report released on Thursday night by the Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics as saying.

Companies are struggling to hire as labour market supply cannot meet demand.

Robust wage growth, though good news for workers, could feed into the already elevated inflation, increasing the risk of sustained high inflation, according to economists.

The latest jobless claims report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits, which run a week behind the headline numbers, decreased by 67,000 to 1.35 million.

The number had peaked in April and May in 2020, when it was over 20 million.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programmes -- state and federal combined -- for the week ending March 5 decreased by 110,749 to nearly 1.86 million.