There are surely others here more competent to explain this... Or are you asking a merely rhetorical question?
Because, for a job market as large as America's, a mere 200-300,000 claims is a drop in the bucket - practically equivalent to baseline full employment (after all, in even the most robust labor market, there will always be a tiny fraction of people who just happen to be "between jobs").
Regards,
Except that....that 200,000+ number is per week...right? That means (no math whiz here, but even by my out of practice math “skills”)....about 800,000 to 1,000,000 (1 million) new unemployment claims per month. Right? And compared to the dismal “jobs created” numbers per month, that’s sucky math and ‘in the red’ numbers...any way you figure it.
Again, what am I missing? I’m really perplexed.