Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain low
WASHINGTON– The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, a sign that layoffs remain low overall, even as several high-profile companies announced job cuts.
U.S. applications for unemployment benefits in the week ending Nov. 22 fell by 6,000 from the previous week, to 216,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. That figure is lower than the 230,000 forecast by economists, according to a survey by data provider FactSet.
Applications for unemployment aid are considered a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the labor market. Recently announced job cuts by large companies such as UPS and Amazon typically take weeks or even months to be fully implemented and may not yet be reflected in claims data.
The four-week claims average, which smooths out some of the weekly volatility, fell 1,000 to 223,750.
For now, the U.S. labor market appears stuck in a state of “low hiring, low firing” that has kept the unemployment rate at a historically low level, but has left unemployed workers struggling to find new jobs.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the week ending Nov. 15 increased by 7,000 to 1.96 million, the government said. This increase is a sign that the unemployed are taking longer to find a new job.
Last week, the government said hiring increased slightly in September, when employers created 119,000 new jobs. Yet the report also shows that employers cut jobs in August. And the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, its highest level in four years, as more Americans moved out to look for work, but not all immediately found jobs.
On Tuesday, the government announced that retail sales slowed in September after three months of healthy increases. Consumer confidence plunged to its second lowest level in five years, while headline inflation eased somewhat.
Data suggests the economy and inflation are slowing, which has reinforced financial markets’ expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its key interest rate at its next meeting on Dec. 9-10.
