[ad_1]
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose last week, but remained at healthy levels despite the Federal Reserve’s attempt to cool the labor market by raising interest rates.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that US claims for unemployment benefits rose by 12 thousand to 248 thousand for the week ended July 1, from 236 thousand in the previous week.
The four-week moving average for claims, which offsets some of the weekly volatility, fell by 3,500 by 253,250.
Jobless claim applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week.
For three weeks in late May and early June, jobless claims appeared to have reached a sustained higher level above 260,000. However, this increase may not be enough feed it Officials should turn from raising the key interest rate at its next meeting.
The American economy has added jobs at a furious pace since more than 20 million jobs disappeared when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. Americans have enjoyed extraordinary job security as companies have been reluctant to lay off employees in a worker-friendly environment.
US employers added a better-than-expected 339,000 jobs in May, surprising economists and painting a mostly encouraging picture for the labor market, even though the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%. Federal Reserve officials said the unemployment rate needs to rise beyond 4% to bring down inflation.
The jobs report for June is due on Friday.
For the most part, the US economy has been resilient in the face of a campaign of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in its efforts to quell persistent inflation not seen since the early 1980s. Slowly rising interest rates have helped curb inflation, though not as quickly as the Fed had hoped.
Last week, the government said the US economy grew at an annual pace of 2% from January to March, much higher than the previous estimate of 1.3%. That, along with a resilient labor market, will likely prompt Federal Reserve officials to push for another rate hike or two before the end of the year as it continues to try to bring down stubborn inflation.
In June, Fed officials chose not to increase the central bank’s benchmark borrowing rate for the first time in 15 months, though some said they expected to add another half-point to rates by the end of the year.
There have been a number of high-profile layoffs recently, mostly in the tech sector, with many companies admitting they overhired during the pandemic.
IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, TwitterLyft, LinkedIn, Spotify and DoorDash have all announced layoffs in recent months. Amazon and Facebook meta Each group has announced two sets of job cuts since November.
Outside of the technology sector, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, and 3M have also announced layoffs recently.
The manufacturing sector was in contraction and the real estate sector suffered due to high interest rates. Three bank failures have also been blamed in part on high interest rates.
Overall, 1.72 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the week ending June 24, 13,000 fewer than in the previous week.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that US claims for unemployment benefits rose by 12 thousand to 248 thousand for the week ended July 1, from 236 thousand in the previous week.
The four-week moving average for claims, which offsets some of the weekly volatility, fell by 3,500 by 253,250.
Jobless claim applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week.
For three weeks in late May and early June, jobless claims appeared to have reached a sustained higher level above 260,000. However, this increase may not be enough feed it Officials should turn from raising the key interest rate at its next meeting.
The American economy has added jobs at a furious pace since more than 20 million jobs disappeared when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. Americans have enjoyed extraordinary job security as companies have been reluctant to lay off employees in a worker-friendly environment.
US employers added a better-than-expected 339,000 jobs in May, surprising economists and painting a mostly encouraging picture for the labor market, even though the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%. Federal Reserve officials said the unemployment rate needs to rise beyond 4% to bring down inflation.
The jobs report for June is due on Friday.
For the most part, the US economy has been resilient in the face of a campaign of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in its efforts to quell persistent inflation not seen since the early 1980s. Slowly rising interest rates have helped curb inflation, though not as quickly as the Fed had hoped.
Last week, the government said the US economy grew at an annual pace of 2% from January to March, much higher than the previous estimate of 1.3%. That, along with a resilient labor market, will likely prompt Federal Reserve officials to push for another rate hike or two before the end of the year as it continues to try to bring down stubborn inflation.
In June, Fed officials chose not to increase the central bank’s benchmark borrowing rate for the first time in 15 months, though some said they expected to add another half-point to rates by the end of the year.
There have been a number of high-profile layoffs recently, mostly in the tech sector, with many companies admitting they overhired during the pandemic.
IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, TwitterLyft, LinkedIn, Spotify and DoorDash have all announced layoffs in recent months. Amazon and Facebook meta Each group has announced two sets of job cuts since November.
Outside of the technology sector, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, and 3M have also announced layoffs recently.
The manufacturing sector was in contraction and the real estate sector suffered due to high interest rates. Three bank failures have also been blamed in part on high interest rates.
Overall, 1.72 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the week ending June 24, 13,000 fewer than in the previous week.
[ad_2]
