Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 886,000 in the week ending October 10, before seasonal adjustment. This was up 9.5 percent from the previous week. However, there is an important caveat: California has temporarily stopped processing its initial claims to update its processes, and so claims for California were based on data prior to this pause. After seasonal adjustment claims were 898,000, up 6 percent from the previous week. 

Initial claims were around 200,000 per week in early 2020, and then soared to above 6 million in early April as the pandemic struck the U.S. labor market. Initial claims then fell steadily over the next few months, but have remained stubbornly high since August at around 800,000 per week, far above their pre-pandemic level. This indicates that layoffs in the US remain very high, as seen in recent job cut announcements from Disney, Shell, and major airlines. 

Continuing claims for unemployment insurance under regular state programs, before seasonal adjustment, fell 11 percent in the week ending October 3 to 9.632 million. After seasonal adjustment continuing claims fell 10 percent to 10.018 million. 

In early 2020 continuing claims were running at around 2 million a week, and then jumped as the pandemic hit, rising to a peak of almost 23 million in early May. They have declined steadily since then as many of the unemployed were either rehired at their old jobs or found new ones. More recently continuing claims have been falling as some of the unemployed have run out of eligibility for the regular state program after 26 weeks of receiving benefits. With continuing claims 4 to 5 times their pre-pandemic level, unemployment remains pervasive throughout the U.S. economy. 

Claims paid across all programs, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, were 25.290 million in the week ending September 26, down 1 percent from the previous week. Total claims for the comparable week in 2019 were 1.416 million. 

Although unemployment in the U.S. is falling, it remains extremely high. Even after accounting for issues with the data layoffs remain elevated; some businesses are reopening, but tens of millions remain unemployed. Some laid-off workers are returning to their previous jobs or finding new ones, but many others have been unemployed for months. The longer these workers remain unemployed, the less likely it is they will return to their old jobs. And finding a new job can be difficult, especially when many businesses are undertaking layoffs. 

The U.S. economy added a solid 661,000 jobs in September, but the pace of job growth has slowed since hitting almost 5 million in June. It will likely take 3 or 4 years for employment to return to its pre-pandemic level.

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