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Although requests for aid are declining, the US labor market faces challenges from a shortage of workers and raw materials. More than three million people lost their jobs to the pandemic, but not all returned to look for new openings.
Wanted workers in the United States. The Labor Department reported Thursday, October 14, that applications for unemployment benefits fell below 300,000 last week, the lowest floor since March 2020 when the pandemic changed the labor market.
Claims for state benefits fell from 36,000 to 293,000 in the week ending October 9 and this could be associated with good conditions in the labor market, although it faces a struggle against a shortage of workers and raw materials.
“The data supports the narrative that companies are increasingly reluctant to lay off workers amid a severe supply shortage,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics.
Official figures reveal that there was a decrease in claims in Florida, Texas and Tennessee, while, in states such as California, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Michigan, they increased.
In Michigan, where there are multiple plants that make and assemble vehicles, requests have increased due to line downtime due to a global shortage of semiconductors.
Some economists point out that between 250,000 and 300,000 applications is consistent with a healthy job market. At the beginning of April 2020, aid claims reached 6.149 million.
In contrast, on Tuesday, the government released data showing that 10.4 million jobs were available at the end of August.
With AP
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