The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits last week inched up but largely stayed at historically low levels as the labor market continues to thrive despite elevated interest rates.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that filings for unemployment claims for the week ending March 9 ticked down by 1,000 to 209,000 from the previous week’s 208,000.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, came in at 208,000, a decrease of 500 from the previous week.
In total, 1.81 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended March 2, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week. Last week’s number, which had been the most since November, was revised down by 112,000.
Not that it’s not correct, but it could be misleading? My job has been firing tons of people for the last few years. They offer them a contract which includes a 6 month severance as long as they don’t apply for benefits. In return the company doesn’t pay more for having a lot of people collecting unemployment. From everywhere I see lots of places are laying off people, we can’t be the only ones paying people off.
Well, logically, if people aren’t filling for unemployment benefits because they’re all employed right? Success.