By Noreen Burke
Investing.com -- The number of Americans filing initial claims for state jobless benefits last week fell by more than expected to 709,000, but remained at levels highlighting concerns over the slowing recovery in the labor market amid resurgence in new COVID-19 cases.
Economists had expected a drop to 735,000. The prior week's figure was revised to 757,000, according to the Labor Department report.
The number of continuing claims fell to 6.786 million, also a little lower than forecast.
The number of initial claims is still close to its lowest since late March, when the first wave of pandemic related layoffs hit the U.S. economy, but it's still more than three times the rate that claims had run at before the pandemic began.
The U.S. is setting consecutive daily records for new coronavirus cases, leading some states to impose fresh rounds of social distancing restrictions, affecting businesses. Meanwhile, economic growth is slowing as a boost from fiscal stimulus earlier in the year peters out. The economy fell into recession in February.