A retired Ripon College economist says the latest U.S. jobless claims are another sign that the U.S. job market is rebounding rapidly from last year’s coronavirus recession. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plummeted by 71,000 to 199,000. Economist Paul Schoofs says that’s the lowest number since mid-November 1969. Schoofs notes the four-week average of claims. which smooths out weekly ups and downs, also dropped, by 21,000 to just over 252,000, the lowest since mid-March 2020 when the pandemic slammed the economy. Seasonal adjustments around the Thanksgiving holiday contributed significantly to the bigger than expected drop.
