Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department said.
Photo:
Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress/Corbis/Getty Images
Filings for U.S. unemployment insurance fell slightly last week and remained near historically low levels, in a sign the labor market remained tight.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Weekly claims have hovered close to their 2019 average of 218,000 since early September.
Some companies, particularly those in the technology and real-estate sectors, are cutting staff or implementing hiring freezes amid rising interest rates and economic uncertainty.
Amazon.com Inc. is preparing layoffs that could total about 10,000 workers, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said last week it would cut more than 11,000 workers, and real-estate company
Redfin Corp.
laid off 13% of its staff last week and closed its home-flipping unit, saying the operation was both too expensive and too risky to continue.
Those layoffs haven’t shown up in the claims figures, however. That could reflect a time lag between companies announcing layoff plans and the data showing up in Labor Department reports, and it could reflect the fact that some workers, especially those with specialized skills in the tech sector, are finding new jobs quickly.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people seeking ongoing unemployment benefits, increased by 13,000 to 1.5 million in the week ended Nov. 5. Those are below weekly totals ahead of the pandemic but up from the spring. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
Write to Gabriel T. Rubin at gabriel.rubin@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 4,000 last week, the Labor Department said.
Photo:
Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress/Corbis/Getty Images
Filings for U.S. unemployment insurance fell slightly last week and remained near historically low levels, in a sign the labor market remained tight.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, decreased by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Weekly claims have hovered close to their 2019 average of 218,000 since early September.
Some companies, particularly those in the technology and real-estate sectors, are cutting staff or implementing hiring freezes amid rising interest rates and economic uncertainty.
Amazon.com Inc. is preparing layoffs that could total about 10,000 workers, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said last week it would cut more than 11,000 workers, and real-estate company
Redfin Corp.
laid off 13% of its staff last week and closed its home-flipping unit, saying the operation was both too expensive and too risky to continue.
Those layoffs haven’t shown up in the claims figures, however. That could reflect a time lag between companies announcing layoff plans and the data showing up in Labor Department reports, and it could reflect the fact that some workers, especially those with specialized skills in the tech sector, are finding new jobs quickly.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people seeking ongoing unemployment benefits, increased by 13,000 to 1.5 million in the week ended Nov. 5. Those are below weekly totals ahead of the pandemic but up from the spring. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
Write to Gabriel T. Rubin at gabriel.rubin@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8