US weekly jobless claims fall after rising for two consecutive weeks

WASHINGTON - The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 712,000 last week, after rising for two consecutive weeks amid surging COVID-19 cases, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.

In the week ending Nov. 28, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased by 75,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 787,000, according to a report released by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

It marked the seventh time in the past 37 weeks that the number has dipped below 800,000.

The BLS report showed that the four-week moving average, a method to iron out data volatility, decreased by 11,250 to 739,500.

"With renewed pressure on businesses as COVID cases rise, it is unclear if the near-term trend will remain downward," Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in an analysis.

The claims report was released as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 196,227 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, setting a grim single-day record. Total cases have surpassed 14 million.

In response to the spikes in infections, state and local officials across the country have recently reinstated restrictive measures to curb the spread of the virus, casting shadow over economic recovery.

The BLS report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits in the week ending Nov. 21 decreased by 569,000 to 5.5 million.

Meanwhile, the recipients of Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, a federal program that provides an additional 13 weeks of benefits for those who exhaust regular state benefits, rose by 59,732 to reach 4.57 million in the week ending Nov. 14.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs -- state and federal combined -- for the week ending Nov. 14 fell by 349,633 but remained elevated at 20.16 million, indicating the pandemic's severe disruption of the labor market.

About 13.4 million out of the more than 20 million are on federal programs set to expire at the end of the year, but Congress has remained deadlocked for months over the next round of coronavirus relief package.