Associated Press Business Writer Matt Ott
Though a little more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, layoffs remain historically low.
U.S. unemployment alleges that there has been an increase in applications between 2,000 and 223,000 for the week that ends March 15, the Labor Bureau said Thursday. That’s less than expected by 224,000 new application analysts.
The weekly application of unemployment benefits is considered a layoff proxy and has been in the range of 200,000-250,000 for the past few years, primarily in the 200,000-250,000 range.
The four-week average even extended some of the weekly swings, increasing from 750 to 227,000.
The Labor Bureau’s February employment report showed that the federal government reduced 10,000 jobs, but it is not clear when government efficiency or when jobs ordered by “Doge” will be cut. That’s the most since June 2022.
Economists don’t expect federal workforce layoffs to have many impacts until March’s work is reported.
These layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to scale the federal workforce through doge, led by billionaire Elon Musk.
U.S. officials moved through memos that began to shrink government later last month and dramatically expand President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the workforce. Thousands of probation employees have already been fired, but last week two federal judges issued an order calling for the rehiring of thousands of these workers.
Despite showing signs of weakening over the past year, the labour market remains healthy with abundant jobs and relatively few layoffs.
The Labor Bureau reported that last month U.S. employers added 151,000 solid jobs, marking the unemployment rate to 4.1%, but remains a historically healthy figure.
Several well-known companies have already announced jobs this year, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Facebook’s parent company Meta.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits in the week of March 8th increased from 33,000 to 189 million.
Original issue: March 20, 2025 9:56am EDT
