(Bloomberg – Last week, applications for U.S. state unemployment insurance fell to a new pandemic low. Employers are seeing some success in keeping employees in an extremely competitive labor market.

The week ending Oct. 9 saw a decline of 36,000 in initial unemployment claims under regular state programs, according to Labor Department data. According to a Bloomberg survey, economists expected a slightly lower number of applications at 320,000.

The week ended October 2 saw a decrease in continuing claims for benefits from the state to be at 0%

The economy has seen a decline in claims, which means that there is a greater demand for workers to maintain pace with the consumer market. The latest surge of coronavirus cases hasn’t led to widespread layoffs as firms look to hire more workers and retain those they already have.

Still, September was the slowest month of job growth this year in the U.S. as the end of pandemic unemployment benefits and back-to-school didn’t lead to a sizable increase in hiring. This, combined with persistent supply-chain problems, led many economists to reduce their predictions for the third quarter growth. The report will be published later in this month.

A lack of childcare proved to be a problem as there was a drop in the number of women working on the payrolls last month, for the first time since December 2020.

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