For the second week in a row, the first time and continued unemployment claims dropped in South Dakota during the week ending Nov. 14.

There were 442 first-time claims, 100 fewer than last week. Dakota News Now reports first-time claims are down after experiencing a surge in late October.

Going back a couple of months ago, South Dakota briefly dipped into average pre-pandemic first-time claims, around 200-300 per week.

3,406 continued claims were filed for the week ending Nov. 7, a drop of 450 from the last report. Continued claims represent the workers who are still eligible and receiving benefits after an initial claim,

Looking at the national numbers, Fox Business reports another 742,000 workers filed the first-time claim last week, coming in higher than analysts expected.

Over 6 million workers are continuing to receive benefits, a drop of 429,000 from last week. Fox Business says there are over 10 million more Americans out of work now than there were in February before the pandemic related shutdowns began.

Now that many states are beginning a new round of lockdowns amid surging COVID-19 cases, it's possible that there will be an increase in jobless numbers nationwide over the next several weeks.

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