U.S. jobless claims hit lowest level since 1969

Yahoo Finance via Quartz ^ | 05/01/2026 | Cris Tolomia

[SeekAndFind]

The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. initial unemployment claims totaled 189,000 for the week ending April 25, down 26,000 from a revised prior-week figure of 215,000. That is the lowest reading in more than 50 years, according to The Associated Press, citing research firm High Frequency Economics, which said the figure was the fewest new applications since September 1969.

Analysts had projected 212,000 applications for the week, according to Bloomberg.

At 207,500, the four-week moving average — a measure designed to reduce week-to-week volatility — was 3,500 below the previous week's revised figure.

For the week ending April 18, the number of people collecting ongoing unemployment benefits reached its lowest point in two years, dropping by 23,000 to 1.785 million, according to Bloomberg. The insured unemployment rate held at 1.2%.

On an unadjusted basis, initial claims totaled 179,765, a decline of 26,668, or 12.9%, from the preceding week. The comparable figure a year earlier was 224,021.

Among individual states, New York posted the steepest reduction in unadjusted filings, shedding close to 11,000 applications, with California and Connecticut also seeing notable pullbacks, according to Bloomberg.

The historically low filing numbers have persisted even though a string of prominent employers — among them Meta Platforms, Nike, Morgan Stanley, and Amazon — have publicly announced workforce reductions, according to Bloomberg and The Associated Press. Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed to a labor market displaying "more and more signs of stability" after the Federal Reserve opted Wednesday to hold its benchmark rate steady, according to Bloomberg.

Since the economy recovered from the pandemic-era downturn, new unemployment filings had generally held within a band of roughly 200,000 to 250,000 per week, according to the AP.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hiring; joblessclaims; layoffs; unemployment

[SeekAndFind]

Economists have described conditions in the job market as "low-hire, low-fire," a dynamic that holds layoffs in check and suppresses the unemployment rate but leaves people who have lost jobs with few openings to pursue, according to the AP.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

People have to work. EBT has been cut off unless you work.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Well, if the RATS would allow ICE to do their jobs, we could get rid of 20 million foreigners taking the jobs Americans can’t get because they can’t do them for the money the employers are paying the invaders to do them.

Support ICE and CBP.

[dayglored]

Trump’s fault, of course. /s

[Semper Vigilantis]

Deported illegal aliens leaving the jobs Americans want.

[Drago]

Also have to factor in the labor force participation rate (down 4.2%)...~11 million people no longer working or claiming unemployment since 2006.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-labor-force-participation-rate.htm

[dpetty121263]

Numbers tend to not be true... Lots of fake jobs listings but few jobs...

[Wayne07]

Unemployment is not bad, 4.3%, but has slowly crept up from 3.4% over the last three years. We aren’t in the dynamic economy of Trump’s first term where it was steadily declining (up until Covid). U-6 and and Labor Force Participation Rate all are following the same pattern.