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Last week, the number of Americans filing unemployment claims fell for the 3^rd time in a row. The recent coronavirus case surges attributed to the Delta variant did not slow the US hiring rate. Unemployment claims are seen as a real-time measure of how the job market is faring. The lower claims for a 3^rd consecutive week are the latest sign that fewer people are being laid off. As the economy bounces back and employers are attempting to fill jobs left vacant after the pandemic as customer demand increases. On Thursday, US Labor Department released a report showing unemployment claims fell to 375 thousand last week, down from 387 thousand the previous week. The total number of applications has been steadily falling since it reached over 900 thousand in early January.

It clearly indicates the weekly unemployment figures have been inflated by fraud and by multiple filings from unemployed Americans as they navigate bureaucratic hurdles to try to obtain benefits. Those complications help explain why the pace of applications remains comparatively high. The unemployment applications were running at about 220,000 a week before the pandemic paralyzed the economy in March 2020. Many states require self-employed and gig workers to first seek conventional unemployment benefits and be turned down before they can apply through a program that was set up last year to provide jobless aid to them for the first time. That program and a $300-a-week federal supplemental unemployment benefit will expire nationwide on 6^th September. At least 22 states, mostly led by Republican governors, have already canceled both programs.

At least 12 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, down sharply from the previous week’s figure of nearly 13 million. That drop reflects that more Americans are being hired and no longer receiving benefits. Another factor is the cancellation in many states of the federal program for the self-employed and a separate program for the long-term jobless. More than 8.7 million people continue to receive aid through those programs and will lose their benefits when those programs expire nationwide on 6^th September 6. US government said last week that employers added a substantial 943 thousand jobs in July and the unemployment rate dropped from 5.9 percent to 5.4 percent. Average hourly earnings jumped a sharp 4 percent in July from a year earlier, indicating that employers have felt compelled to raise pay.