The number of new applications for unemployment benefits rose slightly by 1,000 last week to 203,000, keeping with the trend of low weekly jobless claims.
The level of weekly jobless claims, reported Thursday by the Labor Department, indicates that layoffs are increasingly rare as employers try to hold on to workers. Weekly claims have been headed downward since the omicron variant of COVID-19 peaked in mid-January.
MANUFACTURERS UNDER PRESSURE FROM SURGING DOLLAR AS FED GRAPPLES WITH INFLATION
New jobless claims have been in retreat over the past year. Around this time in May of 2021, new claims were averaging more than 450,000 per week.
“With job openings and quits at a record high, employers will keep layoffs to a minimum,” economists from Oxford Economics said.
The lowest number of recent jobless claims was the 166,000 notched in mid-March — the fewest number of new weekly claims since 1968.
The news comes a day after it was announced that inflation remains stubbornly high in April. Consumer prices increased by 8.3% for the 12 months ending in April, a slight downward tick from the 8.5% registered in March but still far above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
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The Fed hiked its interest rate target by half a percentage point this month in an effort to drive down inflation. The increase was more aggressive than usual and is equivalent to two typical rate hikes at once, something that hasn’t been done since 2000.
In terms of the labor market, the economy beat expectations and added 428,000 jobs last month despite the high inflation and a contraction in GDP in the first quarter of this year.
