AP Business Writer, Matt Ott
The application for us rose to a height of three months last week, but remained within the same healthy range of the past three years.
The Labor Bureau said Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose from 22,000 to 242,000 for the week that ends February 22. Analysts predicted 220,000 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, rose from 8,500 to 224,000.
Some analysts say they hope that government efficiency-ordered layoffs will appear in the reports in the coming weeks or months.
Joseph Brusseras, chief economist at RSM, a tax and advisory firm, said he does not expect a “pipe burst” of layoffs and unemployment.
“At the moment, there’s a high chance that there will be a stable IV, IV, or IV at the pace of landing,” Bruseras said.
On Wednesday, senior US officials set the government to continue moving through memos that dramatically expand President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the workforce. Thousands of probation employees have already been fired, and the Republican administration is now focusing on career staff with civil servant protection.
The agency has been instructed by March 13 to submit plans for what is called forced cuts, not only laying off employees, but also eliminating jobs entirely.
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 has been further reduced to 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 for two interest rate cuts this year, which will decrease from the previous four projections.
Recent government consumer prices report a report showing that inflation accelerated last month and questions the Fed will be cutting 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.
On February 15, the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits fell 1.86 million from 5,000.
Original issue: February 27, 2025, 8:47am EST
