WASHINGTON—The number of weekly unemployment applications has dropped below 1 million for the first time since early March. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Thursday report revealed 881,000 new claims for jobless benefits last week, and 1 million fewer Americans are receiving state unemployment than in the week before. Economists say the unemployment rate is slowly returning to normal, but the level of new applications remains higher than at any time in the report’s history before the pandemic.

After two weeks of decline, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits last week rose to 1.1 million. The U.S. Department of Labor’s report on Thursday highlights the ongoing economic strain from the coronavirus pandemic five months after it started. The unemployment rate stands at 10.2 percent.

WASHINGTON—New jobless benefit claims in the United States dropped below 1 million last week for the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The government’s report released on Thursday said unemployment applications fell for the second straight week, and employers laid off fewer workers across the country.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy picked up 1.8 million jobs in July, the Department of Labor reported on Friday. Employment collapsed in April as states locked down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a loss of more than 20 million jobs. Growth slowed some in July compared to May and June, when U.S. businesses added about 5 million and 3 million jobs, respectively.

WASHINGTON—Thursday’s report from the U.S. Department of Labor showed almost 1.2 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week. Although that number represents a 15 percent drop from the week before and the lowest since the beginning of coronavirus-related lockdowns, it marks the 20th straight week more than a million Americans have applied for unemployment. During the Great Recession in the early 2000s, weekly jobless claims never topped 700,000.

Boeing will cut 12,000 U.S. jobs in the coming weeks, executives announced on Wednesday. Most of the layoffs are in the Seattle area, where the company produces commercial airliners. The cuts highlight the effects coronavirus-related shutdowns have on the economy, including air travel decreasing by 96 percent as of mid-April. Roughly 2.1 million additional workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, according to a U.S.

State governments received 2.4 million new applications for unemployment benefits last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday. On top of those claims, an additional 2.2 million people applied for aid through a new federal program that extends unemployment benefits to self-employed, contract, and gig workers.