Missouri jobless claims below 10k; US jobless claims fall below 1 million

There was an encouraging milestone in new state unemployment numbers.

The labor department on Thursday reported 8,984 initial unemployment claims in the week ending Aug. 8. It marks the first time that number has been under 10,000 since the pandemic hit the economy hard in mid-March.

More from The Associated Press:

The number of laid-off workers applying for unemployment aid fell below 1 million for the first time since the pandemic intensified in March, though applications remain at an extraordinarily high level.

The Labor Department said that applications fell to 963,000, the second straight drop, from 1.2 million the previous week.

The decline suggests that layoffs are slowing, though last week’s figure is still above the pre-pandemic record of just under 700,000.

(This story was last updated at 8:45 a.m. Thursday.)