WASHINGTON– The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell last week as layoffs remain low even as more signs emerge that the labor market is cooling.
Jobless claims for the week ending May 11 fell by 10,000 to 222,000 from 231,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Last week’s claims were the highest since the last week of August 2023, although this is still a relatively low number of layoffs.
The four-week average claims, which offsets some of the weekly volatility, rose 2,500 to 217,750.
Weekly jobless claims are considered an indicator of the number of layoffs in the United States in a given week and a sign of where the labor market is headed. They have remained at low levels since the pandemic wipeout of millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.
In April, U.S. employers added just 175,000 jobs, the fewest in six months and another sign that the labor market is weakening. The unemployment rate rose slightly again from 3.8% to 3.9% and has now remained below 4% for 27 consecutive months, the longest streak since the 1960s.
The government also recently reported about 8.5 million job vacancies in March, the lowest number of vacancies in three years.
Source: With information from AP.
