Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: The number of Americans applying for unemployment checks dropped last week to the lowest level since March, suggesting that most workers enjoy unusual job security, said a report published in Hindustan Times.
Jobless claims dropped by 9,000 to 211,000 last week, the Labour Department reported. The four-week average of claims, which strips out week-to-week ups and downs, fell by 3,500 to 223,250.
The overall numbers receiving unemployment benefits fell by 52,000 to 1.84 million, added the HT report. .
The US job market has cooled considerably from the red-hot hiring days of 2021-2023 when the economy was bouncing back from Covid-19 lockdowns.
Through November, employers added an average of 180,000 jobs a month in 2024, down from 251,000 in 2023, 377,000 in 2022 and a record 604,000 in 2021. Still, even the diminished job creation is solid and a sign of resilience in the face of high interest rates.
The weekly jobless claims numbers are a proxy for layoffs, and those have remained below prepandemic levels. The unemployment rate is at a modest 4.2 per cent, though that is up from a half century low 3.4 per cent reached in 2023.
