US jobless claims filings unchanged from previous week at 213,000, layoffs remain low
ABC News
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week was unchanged from the week before, a sign that layoffs remain at historically low levels
WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week was unchanged from the week before, a sign that layoffs remain at historically low levels.
U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 28 matched the previous week’s 213,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 215,000 new benefit applications.
Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
Last month, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4%. However, government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands, reducing the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000. That’s about one-third of the previously reported 584,000 and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.
The government releases its February jobs data on Friday.
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