By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- The number of people filing initial claims for jobless benefits fell to a new post-pandemic low last week, adding to evidence of a steady recovery in the labor market as the economy reopens.
Initial jobless claims fell to 444,000, from a total of 478,000 the previous week, which was revised upward by 5,000.
The number of continuing claims, which are measured with a one-week time lag to initial ones, rose however by over 100,000 to 3.751 million.
The broadest measure of all those claiming unemployment-related benefits, however, corroborated the general downward trend. It fell by some 900,000 to 15.975 million as of the week ending May 1, the Labor Department said.
The numbers will do little to change perceptions of a job market recovery that is still closer to its start than its end. The presence of 16 million Americans still claiming some sort of dole is likely to carry huge weight with Federal Reserve officials who have consistently argued that they should not withdraw monetary stimulus until the labor market has made "substantial progress".
At the margins, the rise in continuing claims may reinforce concerns about mismatches between the supply of labor and the demand for it, as the jobs destroyed by the pandemic are replaced by new ones requiring different skills. That issue was seen as largely responsible for the disappointing labor market report for April, which saw hiring rebound much more weakly than expected.
"While the ongoing improvement in initial claims is encouraging, the progress in continuing claims has slowed significantly in the last few weeks," said Daniel Zhao,. senior economist with Glassdoor, via Twitter. He warned to be on the lookout for any other signs of a slowing market recovery ahead of the May jobs report in just over two weeks' time.