Summary List Placement

Filings for US unemployment benefits declined last week as America’s labor-market recovery made sluggish progress amid elevated COVID-19 case counts.

New US jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 900,000 for the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department announced Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected 935,000 filings for the period. The reading lands below the previous week’s revised sum of 926,000. The report also marks the first decline in four weeks.

Continuing claims, which track Americans receiving unemployment benefits, slid to 5.1 million for the week that ended January 9. Economists forecasted a reading of 5.3 million claims.