Another 837,000 individuals filed new jobless claims last week, for a marginal step down from the 870,000 reported during the prior period. This marked the fifth straight week that new jobless claims come in below 1 million. But six months since the pandemic took hold in the US and decimated economic activity, new jobless claims are still running far above levels from before the outbreak. As recently as in February this year, new jobless claims were coming in at a rate of around 200,000 per week.