Jeff Cox@JEFF.COX.7528@JEFFCOXCNBCCOM
Labor Department officials said the pace of unemployment claims declined again last week as the U.S. jobs market continued its plodding recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Thursday's data showed initial claims totaled 1.54 million, compared with the 1.6 million expected from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and a plunge of 355,000 from the previous week’s total just shy of 1.9 million.
That total claims number has now fallen for 10 straight weeks, but remains extremely high on a historical basis.
Today's jobs report comes a week after the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that nonfarm payrolls increased by 2.5 million in May, though reporting errors have cast some doubt about how aggressive the recovery has been so far.
More: CNBC.COM