Weekly jobless claims fall to 751,000 in last report before election

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to 751,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending Oct. 24, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The report is the last batch of weekly jobless claims data that the Labor Department is releasing before Tuesday’s presidential election.

Initial claims decreased by 40,000 from the previous week’s revised amount of 791,000. The Labor Department initially reported last week that there had been 787,000 new claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending Oct. 17.

The amount of new jobless claims in the week ending Oct. 24 was lower than economists’ expectation of 775,000.

The number of unadjusted claims was 732,223, a decrease of 28,354 from the previous week.

Unemployment claims have been elevated throughout the year because of layoffs and business closures related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Congress in March enacted legislation that provided an additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits through July, allows more people to be eligible to receive unemployment benefits, and allows people to receive unemployment benefits for a longer period of time.

An additional coronavirus relief package is unlikely to be enacted before the election, with a number of areas of disagreements between the White House and House Democrats still remaining.