Just 184,000 people filed for first time unemployment claims in the week ending December 4th, the Wall Street Journal reports, the lowest level seen in the United States since September 1969. The news comes one day after the Labor Department reported 11 million job openings and 4.2 million Americans voluntarily leaving their jobs in November.
The data show a significant shift in workforce dynamics since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter of 2020. The number of “quits” indicates worker confidence in being able to obtain employment in a preferred position after leaving jobs the workers found unsatisfactory for any variety of reasons.
The tight marketplace for workers is also reflected in a 4.8% increase in wages in November as employers battle to attract job applicants and the national unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in November. “We expect claims will start to more consistently hover around pre-Covid averages of 220,000 or perhaps slightly lower given current tight labor market conditions,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics.