WASHINGTON, D.C. — A total of 385,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment insurance assistance for the week that ended May 29, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. These claims were a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised unemployment claims of 405,000 and were lower than Dow Jones economists’ estimates of 425,000. This week’s claims were again the lowest number of claims since March 14, 2020, which saw 225,500 claims.
The May employment report comes out on Friday, June 4. Economists predict that the report will show that 671,000 jobs have been added to the economy in the month of May, according to the Wall Street Journal. The news outlet also reports that economists expect to see the unemployment rate has decreased to 5.9 percent last month from 6.1 percent in April.