That’s despite a drop in confirmed viral infections and evidence that the overall economy is improving.

These persistently high jobless claims indicate a lot of labor market volatility.

It’s the lowest figure since late November for weekly jobless claims, but the labor market isn’t making much progress.

The job market has stalled, with employers having added a mere 49,000 jobs in January after cutting workers in December.

The job market’s improvement slowed through the fall and in the past two months has essentially stalled.

Jobless claims fell for the third straight week, to 779,000.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell but remained at a historically high 847,000 last week.

More people are relying on gig work, which puts a lot of risk on the workers themselves.

The data underscores that President Joe Biden has inherited an economy that faltered this winter as virus cases spiked.

After declining over the summer, weekly claims have been stuck above 700,000 since September.