Another 340,000 American workers filed for unemployment last week, a historically elevated number that nonetheless marked the lowest weekly level of jobless claims since the pandemic struck. First-time filings for unemployment insurance, a proxy for layoffs, came in at 340,000 for the week ending Sept. 2, a drop of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 354,000, the Labor Department said in a statement (pdf). This is the lowest weekly claims figure since March 14, 2020, when 256,000 people filed for unemployment. Continuing claims, which represent the number of people collecting unemployment benefits after earlier filing an initial claim, fell by 160,000 to 2.7 million, also the lowest level since March of last year. “After a series of negative surprises with economic data, new pandemic era lows for both new and continuing jobless claims are welcomed developments,” Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick told The Epoch Times in an …