Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting a low number of layoffs across the economy.
Unemployment claims fell to 215,000 during the week ending Feb. 26, 18,000 less than the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It is the lowest weekly level since mid-December, when the wave of Omicron increased layoffs as companies closed.
The four-week average of claims, offsetting weekly volatility, fell by 6,000 to 230,500.
“Claims are back to pre-Omicron lows following the collapse of cases and hospitalizations,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, in a research note. “Demand for discretionary services is rising sharply, reducing pressure on companies hard hit by the withdrawal of social activity when the variant emerged.”
Nearly 1.5 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits in the week ending Feb. 12, a small increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised number.
First-time applications for unemployment benefits generally follow the pace of layoffs, which are reduced to fairly healthy pre-pandemic levels of between 200,000 and 250,000 a week.
“The latest figures show more evidence that job creation is strong and employers continue to stand firm in their workforce,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of external placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, in a statement. A company report on Thursday found that the job cuts announced for February were 20% lower than in January, while the number of job advertisements scheduled for February was the highest recorded for this month.
The Department of Labor released its February employment report on Friday. Economists expect it to show that U.S. employers added about 400,000 jobs last month.
In January, the US economy added 467,000 jobs and December and November revised earnings showed a combined increase of 709,000 jobs. The unemployment rate stands at 4%, a historically low figure.
The US economy has recovered strongly since the brief but intense 2020 coronavirus recession this put millions of Americans out of work and sent millions more to work from home instead of offices. Massive government spending and the deployment of vaccines have boosted the economy, with employers adding a record 6.4 million jobs last year. The U.S. economy expanded 5.7% in 2021, growing at the fastest annual rate last year from a 7.2% increase in 1984, which also followed a recession.
So is inflation up to the age of 40 – 7.5% year-on-year: the Federal Reserve provided its monetary support to the economy. The Fed has said it will begin a series of interest rate hikes this month to try to curb rising prices.
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