The Labor Department announced on Sept. 9 that the number of American workers who filed for unemployment last week hit a fresh pandemic-era low, giving an immediate upward jolt to risk assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies, followed by pullbacks as investors mulled mixed signals around the state of the economy. First-time filings for unemployment insurance—a proxy for layoffs—came in at 310,000 for the week ending Sept. 4, a drop of 35,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 345,000, the Labor Department said in a statement (pdf). This is the lowest weekly claims figure since March 14, 2020, when 256,000 people filed for unemployment. “With another significant move lower, new jobless claims have reached a fresh pandemic-era low, seemingly on the verge of finally pushing below the 300,000 level,” Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. All three main Wall Street stock indexes …
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