Unemployment Claims Fall to New Pandemic-Era Low But Remain Historically High

Initial filings for unemployment insurance, a proxy for layoffs, came in at 385,000 for the week ended July 31, a drop of 14,000 over the previous week’s revised level, the Labor Department said in a release Thursday.

Key Inflation Gauge Posts Fastest Annual Price Gain In 30 Years

Some economists have expressed concerns that if prices accelerate too fast and stay high for too long, expectations of further price increases will take hold, driving up demand for wages and potentially triggering the kind of wage-price spiral that pla…