Jobless claims in South Dakota dropped last week according to the latest report from the state Department of Labor. This comes after the state saw a small spike in claims last week.

Dakota News Now reports that first-time unemployment claims for the week ending November 28 came in at 380, a drop of over 300 from last week when the number climbed past 700.

380 claims are closer to the pre-pandemic average of 200-300 initial jobless claims per week. During the pandemic, the average weekly claims have risen as expected to a range between 300 to 500.

Continued claims, or the number of people eligible for and receiving benefits after their initial claim fell by 907 to 2930 for the week ending November 21.

Nationally, another 712,000 people filed a first-time unemployment claim for the week ending November 28 according to Fox Business. The number of workers filing a continued claim fell about 596,000 to 5.52 million for the week ending November 21.

Overall, 68 million workers, or about 40% of the country's workforce, have filed a first-time claim since state government-mandated COVID-19 lockdowns began in March.

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