The number of Americans requesting unemployment benefits decreased once more last week and has been lingering around levels that indicate the US labor market has been mostly untouched by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate increases.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of applications for unemployment benefits dropped to 225,000 for the week ending November 26, down 16,000 from the previous week’s 241,000 applications.
Unemployment Benefits
The claims’ four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly fluctuations, increased by 1,750 to 227,000. For the fourth time this year, the Fed increased its short-term lending rate at the beginning of this month by an additional 0.75 percentage points or three times its usual margin. Its key rate is currently between 3.75% and 4%, which is the highest level in 15 years.
US firms added 261,000 jobs last month and are adding over 407,000 jobs a month on average this year despite persistent inflation and swiftly rising interest rates.
In government hiring records dating back to 1940, the rate would make 2022 the second-best year after 2021.
For every American without a job, there are almost two openings. A few points above a half-century low, the jobless rate is 3.7%.
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US Unemployment Rate
On Friday, the government releases its November jobs data.
Early on in the year, the number of new weekly applications for unemployment benefits has been incredibly low and has stayed around 200,000 for the majority of February, March, and April. Late in the spring, they started to increase gradually and reached 261,000 by mid-July before falling back down.
The number of persons getting unemployment benefits increased by 57,000, to 1.61 million, during the week ending Nov. 19, according to the Labor Department’s report on Thursday.
In an otherwise healthy job market, the digital and real estate industries have stood out, with Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, DoorDash, Redfin, and Compass all recently reporting sizable layoffs.
