US applications for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in two months, suggesting resilient demand for workers amid a moderation in job gains.
Initial jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 228,000 in the week ended July 15, according to Labor Department data published Thursday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 240,000 new claims.
Continuing claims, which count those who have received unemployment benefits for more than one week, rose by 33,000 to 1.75 million in the week through July 8. That marked the largest increase in more than three months.
The numbers suggest the labor market remains strong as businesses hold onto employees, even as they’ve added to payrolls in recent months at a slower pace. A robust job market has been instrumental in underpinning consumer spending, offering hope the economy can avoid a recession this year.
The four-week moving average of initial claims fell to a six-week low of 237,500. That figure can help smooth through volatility in week-to-week numbers.
On an unadjusted basis, claims were little changed in the week ended July 15. Applications increased in California, Georgia, and South Carolina. Many other states, including Michigan and Kentucky, saw declines.
The latest claims figures correspond with the survey week for the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, which will be released on Aug. 4.
America's working women were feared to suffer the worst in the pandemic recovery. The opposite, however, has proven to be the case, with women serving as historic drivers of a labor market that remains surprisingly strong.
The pay gap between full-time working women and male counterparts is now the narrowest on record. The dynamic has been long in the making — a reflection of discrimination's slow fade and other structural forces that have held women back on pay.
- But it is also a result of a resilient, tight labor market where women have entered the workforce in droves.
"Many women are coming back into the labor force at higher wage rates than before," says Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter. "What was a 'she-cession' in some ways appears to be turning into a 'she-boom.'"
Full-time working women had median weekly earnings of $1,001 last quarter, about 84% of the $1,185 male median.
- Male employees continue to earn more than their female counterparts. But by this measure, the pay gap is the narrowest since the government began collecting data in 1979.
Women have been the driving force behind multi-decade highs in employment rates for working-age Americans. Roughly 75% of 25- to 54-year-old women are employed — the highest share on record.
Those higher employment rates for women, paired with early signs of bigger strides in shrinking the pay gap, might set this economic cycle apart from others.
- "In the 2010s, there was a lot of progress for women on plenty of other measures, like labor force participation rates. There was less progress on pay, which really baffled observers," Pollak says.