The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a 17-month low last week, pointing to another month of robust job growth, though surging COVID-19 infections pose a risk to the labor market recovery. The weekly unemployment claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, also showed the number of people on state jobless rolls dropped in early August to levels last seen in mid-March 2020, when the economy almost ground to a halt amid mandatory business closures aimed at slowing the first wave of COVID-19 cases. The labor market’s prospects were boosted by other data showing a measure of manufacturing employment in the mid-Atlantic […]