US applications for jobless benefits jump by 22,000 to 231,000 last week, the most in 2 months
Newsy
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week but remains in the same historically low range of the past few years.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week but remains in the same historically low range of the past few years.
Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 31 rose by 22,000 to 231,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s significantly more than the 211,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.
Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
A number of high-profile companies have announced job cuts in the past year, including UPS, Amazon and Dow just last week.
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