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The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell to 684,000 a week ago, the lowest it has been since the COVID-19 pandemic first began a year ago. It is the first time applications have fallen below 700,000 since March of 2020. Up until then, jobless claims had never topped that level. 

A total of nearly 19 million people continue to draw jobless benefits. Around a third of those recipients are in extended federal aid programs, meaning that have been unemployed for more than six months.

For the month of February, 379,000 jobs were added, doubling January’s total. Federal Reserve Policymakers are estimating that the unemployment rate will dip to 4.5 percent by the end of the year. It currently stands at 6.2 percent.