Continuing Claims

First-time unemployment claims fell to 963,000 for the week ending 8/8/20, the first time they have been under a million in 20 weeks. Moreover, continuing claims declined to 15.5 million and like first-time claims have been steadily falling. Despite the steady falloff in first time claims, the improvement in continuing claims is slowing! Over the last four weeks they’ve shrunk by 1.8 million, during the prior four weeks, 2.5 million.