KALAMAZOO, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – Weekly jobless claims are below a million for the first time since March.
The Labor Department reports 963 thousand Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week. That’s 228 thousand fewer than the previous week and fewer than the 1.1 million analysts had forecast.
West Michigan continues to stay lower than the national average in joblessness, and part of the reason, according to Dr. Brian Long, Director of Supply Management Research at Grand Valley State University, is that employers don’t want to lose those valuable workers.
He conducts a survey of purchasing managers in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids monthly that is the basis for a look at the West Michigan economy, focusing on manufacturing and employment. “In the case of one of our local firms,” Dr. Long said on “WHTC Morning News” during a monthly interview on Wednesday, “they went to a four-day week, just so they could keep everybody employed. They didn’t want to lose the people they had because they worked so hard to get them before this pandemic began.”
The biggest jump in claims was in Rhode Island. The sharpest declines were in California, Virginia, Texas, Florida, and New Jersey.
