New applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell last week to a fresh half-century low as employers held on to their workers in the midst of a labor shortage.

Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 187,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was slightly below a level last seen in December, and the lowest level for initial claims in over 52 years, since September 1969. The four-week average, which smooths out volatility in the numbers, decreased by 11,500 to 211,750.

Continuing claims, a measure of the total number of people on the unemployment rolls through regular state programs, moved down to 1.35 million for the week ended March 12 from 1.42 million the previous week. That was the lowest level since January 1970, a time when the labor force was roughly half as large as it is today. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag. …

The fall in new unemployment claims comes at a time when the number of new coronavirus cases is dropping, potentially freeing up more people to get back into the workforce. About 2.8 million people weren’t working in early March because they either had or were caring for someone with Covid-19, down from 7.8 million in late January and early February, according to Census surveys. And the number of people who weren’t working because they were afraid of getting sick fell to 2.3 million from 3 million.

Read the full article from the Wall Street Journal HERE.