The number of people applying for unemployment benefits continues to soar to a 33-month high.

Last week, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States fell sharply, the largest decline in a year, indicating that the employment market is improving.

On Thursday, August 8, the US Department of Labor announced that 0.233 million people applied for initial unemployment benefits in the week of August 3, which was lower than the expected 0.24 million people and lower than the previous value of 0.249 million people.

However, as of the week ending August 3, the number of continued claims for unemployment benefits rose to a new high since November 2021, reaching 1.875 million. The four-week average number of continued claims for unemployment benefits also reached a new high.

The data shows that the decrease in the number of unemployment claims is due to the decrease in the number of applicants in states such as Michigan, Missouri, and Texas, where the number of applicants has increased significantly in recent weeks.

After the initial data on US unemployment was released, US Treasury bond yields rose, with the yield on 10-year government bonds now reporting 4.007%, up 1.47%.

It is worth noting that last week's unemployment rate in the United States hit the Sam rule, causing strong concerns in the market about a US economic recession. After the initial data for August 3 was released, concerns about the labor market cooling too quickly were eased. Some analysts pointed out that:

"The reduction in initial claims may help reassure the market that the labor force is only recovering to pre-epidemic levels."

In addition, most Fed analysts still expect that Fed policymakers will begin to moderately lower the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points at the mid-September meeting.

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