The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, but remained at historically low levels, showing that the labor market remains tight.
Some 202,000 people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time in the week ending March 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. This is an increase of 14,000 over the previous week’s number, which was the lowest weekly figure since 1969.
In all, 1.3 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits during the week ending March 19, the lowest figure since December 1969.
Economists closely monitor weekly unemployment demands, as they generally follow the course of layoffs. As the job market remains extremely competitive, most employers do not want to let go of their existing workforce.
Last week’s figure “is still a low level of claims consistent with extremely tight labor market conditions,” Nancy Vanden Houten, a senior US economist at Oxford Economics, said in a report. “We expect initial claims to remain around 200,000 or less, as employers, who continue to struggle to attract and retain workers, are likely to keep layoffs to a minimum.”
Entrepreneurs added 678,000 jobs in February, the highest monthly total since July, while the unemployment rate fell to a pandemic low of 3.8%. Figures for new March jobs are released on Friday.
In the meantime, job vacancies were at almost record level in February, changed little from the previous month, continuing a trend that Federal Reserve officials see as one of the main drivers of inflation. There were 11.3 million jobs available last month, just like the January figure and just below the December record of 11.4 million, according to the Department of Labor, and the number of workers who left their jobs stood near record levels.
A separate report from outside placement company Challenger Gray & Christmas found that the job cuts announced for March were 30% below last year’s level.
The Associated Press contributed to the information.
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