Jobless Claims Fell Last Week, Showing Still Strong Labor Market
Applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, showing the U.S. labor market remains strong as other signs point to a cooling economy.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 192,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims the prior week had increased by 22,000, revised data show, in part due to a jump in New York, where there was a school break.
The four-week average of weekly claims, which smooths out volatility in the weekly numbers, fell slightly last week to 196,500, a historically low level.
Claims have treaded near the 2019 prepandemic average of about 220,000 for several months. The figures have been mostly steady despite large employers in interest-rate sensitive industries such as technology, finance and real estate cutting jobs.
Meta Platforms Inc. said it plans to cut roughly 10,000 jobs over the coming months, the Facebook parent’s second round of mass layoffs, and other companies beyond high-growth technology companies such as Dow Inc. and 3M Co. have announced job cuts in recent months.
Those cuts may not have translated into a significant uptick in unemployment filing because workers could be quickly finding new jobs or might not be seeking assistance due to generous severance packages.
Write to Bryan Mena at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, showing the U.S. labor market remains strong as other signs point to a cooling economy.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 192,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims the prior week had increased by 22,000, revised data show, in part due to a jump in New York, where there was a school break.
The four-week average of weekly claims, which smooths out volatility in the weekly numbers, fell slightly last week to 196,500, a historically low level.
Claims have treaded near the 2019 prepandemic average of about 220,000 for several months. The figures have been mostly steady despite large employers in interest-rate sensitive industries such as technology, finance and real estate cutting jobs.
Meta Platforms Inc. said it plans to cut roughly 10,000 jobs over the coming months, the Facebook parent’s second round of mass layoffs, and other companies beyond high-growth technology companies such as Dow Inc. and 3M Co. have announced job cuts in recent months.
Those cuts may not have translated into a significant uptick in unemployment filing because workers could be quickly finding new jobs or might not be seeking assistance due to generous severance packages.
Write to Bryan Mena at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8