Claims for US jobless benefits fell last week as the job market remains accommodating to interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve aimed at cooling the economy.
Claims for the week ending Feb. 18 were down 3,000 to 192,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Orders were below 200,000 for the sixth week in a row.
The four-week moving average, which partly flattens weekly volatility, increased by 1,500 to 191,250, falling below 200,000 for the fifth week in a row.
Claims for unemployment benefits are considered to be an indirect indicator of the number of layoffs in the country.
Weeks ago, the Federal Reserve raised its prime interest rate by 25 basis points, the eighth increase in less than a year. The central bank’s reference rate is in a range of 4.5% to 4.75%, the highest in 15 years. Its chairman, Jerome Powell, seemed to hint that he expects two more quarter-point hikes.
So far, the Fed’s aggressive rate policy has slowed inflation somewhat, but has had little impact on a strong labor market.
Two weeks ago, the government reported the creation, higher than expected, of 517,000 jobs in January and the drop in the unemployment rate to 3.4%, the lowest level since 1969. Analysts had forecast the creation of some 185,000 jobs.
Job offers rose to 11 million in December from 10.4 million in November, the highest number since July. For 18 straight months, employers have posted at least 10 million job offers, a level never reached before 2021 in data going back to 2000. In December, there were an average of two vacancies for every jobless person.
