*Originally Reported by Reuters
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week as the labor market continued to show few signs of a significant slowdown.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 for the week ended Nov. 4 from an upwardly revised 220,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 218,000 claims for the latest week.
forwp-incontent-ad1">Data last week showed the job market is cooling, with the pace of hiring slowing and unemployment ticking higher, although joblessness – at 3.9% in October – remains historically low. A separate report showed that there were 1.5 job openings for every unemployed person in September, down from around 2-to-1 when the job market was the most tight last year.
The U.S. central bank held interest rates steady last week but left the door open to a further increase in borrowing costs in a nod to the economy’s resilience. Since March 2022, the Fed has raised its policy rate by 525 basis points to the current 5.25%-5.50% range.
The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, rose to 1.834 million during the week ending Oct. 28, the highest level since April, the claims report showed. The so-called continuing claims have increased in recent weeks, but economists said that mostly reflected difficulties adjusting the data for seasonal fluctuations rather than a material change in the underlying trend.
Indeed, layoffs remain considerably low. Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said last week that announced job cuts by U.S.-based employers fell 22% last month from September, though they were up 9% from a year earlier.
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