The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped last week, according to a Bloomberg News review of state data that was released while the federal government was shut down.

How much of a drop is there?

New data suggests that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to around 218,000 in the week ending October 25, down from a revised 231,000 the previous week, according to figures from the Labor Department reported by Bloomberg.

Although the US Labour department hasn’t released its regular weekly report since September 25 due to the government shutdown, it did share downloadable data from most states. Bloomberg News analysed this information and adjusted it using previously released seasonal factors from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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