Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week with the labor market continuing to cruise along despite higher interest rates intended to cool hiring, the Associated Press reports.
U.S. applications for jobless claims fell by 9,000 to 228,000 for the week ending July 15, from 237,000 previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, fell by 9,250 to 237,500.
Jobless claim applications are viewed as reflective of the number of layoffs in a given week.
For three weeks in late May and early June, jobless claims had appeared to reach a sustained, higher level, above 260,000. But the past four weeks, claims have retreated and the labor market remains historically healthy.
Since more than 20 million jobs vanished when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, U.S. employers have added jobs at a blistering pace, more often than not beating forecasts. Despite the fastest interest rate hikes since 1989, the unemployment rate has hardly budged and remains historically low at 3.6%.
Overall, 1.75 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended July 8, about 33,000 more than the previous week.
