With over 15 million individuals unemployed based on Thursday's jobs report and an additional 10.7 million individuals receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, labor market improvement cannot happen fast enough. However, employment-related reports this past week indicate the job market is improving. Initial jobless claims for the week ending August 7 were reported at 963,000, a far cry lower than the nearly 7 million claims filed at the peak of the pandemic shutdown in March/April. Although last week's claims level is too high, they are declining.
Also reported last week was the Job Openings and Labor Turnover