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The
Labor Department said Thursday that initial jobless claims
ticked down to 197,000 from a revised 199,000 the week before.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week
volatility, dropped by 2,500 to 198,000.
Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and
economists watch them because they can be a sign of where the
job market is headed. So far this year, claims have remained at
a historically low level below 220,000.
The report suggests that most companies are confident enough in
the economy and their sales to hold onto their workers. At the
same time, hiring has been sluggish, resulting in a “low-hire,
low-fire” job market. Last month, the unemployment rate ticked
up to a still-low 4.2%.
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has fallen
below 200,000 for four straight weeks now, “an incredibly low
level of layoffs for a sustained period of time that hasn’t been
seen since the 1960s,” said Heather Long, chief economist at the
Navy Federal Credit Union.
At the same time, those out of work are having a more difficult
time finding a new job. The number of people unemployed for more
than six months is at a five-year high, Long noted.
The government said last week that businesses and other
employers added just 29,000 jobs in September, down from 133,000
in August and below what economists had forecast.
Yet with population growth slowing and immigration into the
United States dropping, the economy doesn't need to generate as
many jobs every month to keep the unemployment rate low.
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