World News | Applications for Jobless Benefits Inch Up, but Layoffs Remain Low, Labour Market Healthy
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low.
Washington, Mar 20 (AP) Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain historically low.
US jobless claims filings rose by 2,000 to 223,000 for the week ending March 15, the Labour Department said Thursday. That's just less than the 224,000 new applications analysts forecast.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have remained mostly in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.
The four-week average, which evens out some of the week-to-week swings, inched up by 750 to 227,000.
It's not clear when job cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” will show up in the weekly layoffs report, though the Labour Department's February jobs report showed that the federal government shed 10,000 jobs. That's the most since June of 2022.
Economists don't expect the federal workforce layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report.
Those layoffs are part of the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through DOGE, spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk.
Senior US officials set the government downsizing in motion late last month via a memo dramatically expanding President Donald Trump's efforts to scale back the workforce.
Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired — though two federal judges last week issued orders requiring the rehiring of thousands of those workers.
Despite showing some signs of weakening during the past year, the labour market remains healthy with plentiful jobs and relatively few layoffs.
The Labour Department reported that US employers added a solid 151,000 jobs last month, and while the unemployment rate ticked up to a 4.1 per cent, it remains a historically healthy figure.
Some high-profile companies have announced job cuts already this year, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Facebook parent company Meta.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March 8 rose by 33,000 to 1.89 million. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)