New weekly jobless claims dropped from the prior week's upwardly revised level to a fresh pandemic-era low last week, with the accelerating pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. helping support the labor market's recovery.

The Department of Labor released its weekly report on new jobless claims on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the report, compared to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg:

• Initial jobless claims, week ended April 24: 553,000 vs. 540,000 expected and an upwardly revised 566,000 during the prior week

• Continuing claims, week ended April 17: 3.660 million vs. 3.590 million expected and a downwardly revised 3.651 million during the prior week

New jobless claims held below 600,000 for a third straight week, dipping to the lowest level since mid-March 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a major blow to the U.S. economy. During the comparable week last year, new weekly jobless claims totaled nearly 3.5 million.

Though headline new claims have been on the decline, an elevated number of Americans have still been sidelined from the labor market. More than 16.5 million Americans were still receiving unemployment benefits across all programs as of mid-April, for a decrease of nearly 1 million from the previous week. That included more than 12 million Americans on the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which both expire in September.

But with the economic recovery now well under way, an emergent concern has become the paucity of qualified workers to fill open roles, according to many reports. The Federal Reserve's latest Beige Book for April noted that "hiring remained a widespread challenge, particularly for low-wage or hourly workers, restraining job growth in some cases."

"A growing number of employers report struggling to find qualified workers, particularly for entry level or lower wage positions," Bankrate senior economic analyst Mark Hamrick said in an email. "The hard-hit leisure and hospitality sector, including bars and restaurants, appears to be ground zero for this challenge."

Still, the overall data have pointed to a strongly positive trend in the job market's recovery trajectory. The Conference Board's April consumer confidence survey released earlier this week showed a labor market differential – or difference between those saying jobs are "plentiful" versus those characterizing them as "hard to get" – that jumped significantly to 24.7 from 8.0 in March. And the overall consumer confidence index rose to the highest level since February 2020, suggesting consumers were feeling better about economic prospects and might be more apt to go out and spend and stimulate even further hiring as reopenings took place.