US government reports retail sales jumped 9.8% in March

New applications for US unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, the government said on Thursday, reaching their lowest level since the Covid-19 pandemic caused mass unemployment.

The Labor Department said there were 576,000 new jobless claims filed last week, seasonally adjusted, far fewer than analysts had expected and the lowest level since the week ended March 14, 2020 -- just before the coronavirus sparked business disruptions and millions of layoffs.

The US government also reported that retail sales jump 9.8% in March, beating market expectations. 

The total dropped nearly 200,000 from the previous week, which was revised upward, marking the largest weekly decrease since last August.

However, another 131,975 people, not seasonally adjusted, filed applications under a program for freelance workers and others not normally eligible for aid, bringing total new claims to more than 700,000 in the week ended April 10.

The positive economic news comes just weeks after the Biden administration successfully passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, dispersing $1400 checks to the bank accounts of millions of Americans still struggling from the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The administration is now in current negotiations over another massive spending plan that aims to rebuild the country's badly outdated infrastructure, a project previous administrations have promoted but ultimately never accomplished.   

However, the world's largest economy, which enjoyed record low unemployment before the pandemic, remains short millions of jobs lost when the virus hit. 

As of the week ended March 27, nearly 17 million people were claiming jobless benefits under all government programs, the report said.

And through April 3, the insured unemployment rate indicating people actually receiving regular benefits climbed slightly to 2.7 percent with more than 3.7 million people receiving benefits.