Slightly fewer Americans applied for jobless claims last week, the Associated Press reports, further indicating that the labor market remains strong in an era of high interest rates. Jobless claim applications are seen as representative of the number of layoffs in a given week.
Applications for unemployment benefits fell by 3,000 to 217,000 for the week ending Nov. 4, the Labor Department reported today. The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, inched up by 1,500 to 212,250.
Overall, 1.83 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended Oct. 28, about 22,000 more than the previous week and the most since April.
“Continuing claims,” analysts suggest, are rising because many of those who are already unemployed may now be having a harder time finding new work.
Still, the American labor market continues to show resilience in the midst of the Federal Reserve’s campaign to get inflation back down to its 2% target.
