Associated Press, by Matt Ott
There was a slight increase in Americans who applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remained within the same recent healthy range.
The Labor Bureau said Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose from 5,000 to 219,000 for the week that ends February 15th. Analysts predicted 215,000 new applications would be submitted.
The weekly application of unemployment benefits is considered a lieoff proxy.
The four-week average, which equals some of the weekly volatility, fell from 1,000 to 215,250.
Some analysts say they hope that in the coming weeks, government efficiency-ordered layoffs will appear in the reports.
Despite showing signs of weakening over the past year, the labour market remains healthy with abundant jobs and relatively few layoffs.
Earlier this month, the Labor Bureau reported that U.S. employers added 143,000 jobs in January, significantly lower than the 256,000 employment benefits in December. However, the unemployment rate drops to another 4%, indicating a very healthy labor market.
In late January, the Federal Reserve left only the benchmark lending rate after issuing three cuts in late 2024. Fed officials are closely monitoring inflation and labor markets of indications that could weaken the economy. They are only looking forward to two interest rate cuts this year, which will decrease from the previous four projections.
Last week’s consumer pricing report showed that inflation accelerated last month and questions about whether the Fed will be cut all year round.
The consumer price index rose 3% in January, up from the 3.5-year low of 2.4% in September. New data shows that it has stubbornly surpassed the Fed’s 2% target for the past six months after a steady decline after about a year and a half.
Overall, layoffs remain low by historical standards, but some well-known companies have already announced their jobs this year.
Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Facebook’s parent company Meta have already trimmed its workforce in 2025.
In late 2024, GM, Boeing, Cargill and Stellantis announced their layoffs.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits on February 8th rose to 1.87 million, an increase of 24,000 from the previous week.
Original issue: February 20, 2025, 8:57am EST
