<article><p>US initial jobless claims fell last week to the lowest since 1969 as employers grow hesitant to fire workers amid a tightening labor market.</p><p>Claims for initial state jobless benefits in the week ended 20 November fell to 199,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised 270,000 claims, the Labor Department said today. The four-week moving average was 252,250, down by 21,000 and the lowest since 14 March 2020, just before the first wave of Covid-19 restrictions shut down vast swaths of the economy.</p><p>The US added 531,000 jobs in October, the biggest gain in three months, a Labor report earlier this month showed, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.8pc, closing in on pre-Covid levels of about 3.5-4pc.</p><p>US job openings in September of 10.4mn were near a record at the same time as an all-time high 4.4mn employees quit their jobs, according to Labor Department data. Employers are having a hard time finding workers to keep up with overheated demand as the post-lockdown economic recovery presents new labor market opportunities to many Americans.</p><p>But the advance of the Delta variant of Covid-19 could deal another setback to the economic recovery and the labor market, even as vaccination rates climb.</p><p>The seven-day moving average of new cases was at about 91,400 on 21 November, up from a recent low of about 64,000 on 24 October as well as the year's low of about 11,500 on 19 June, according to the Centers for Disease Control. </p><p class="bylines">By Robert Willis</p></article>
