New applications for unemployment benefits rose 3,000 to 241,000 in the second full week of June, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.
The uptick was in line with forecasters’ expectations for jobless claims to remain around 240,000, near the very low levels of recent months.
Low jobless claims are a good sign. They indicate that layoffs are rare. Investors and officials at the Federal Reserve watch them because they are collected from state unemployment agencies and published weekly, giving an up-to-date measure of the economy’s health.
Recent jobless claims have been way below the levels that would cause concern. Over the past month, weekly jobless claims have averaged under 245,000. In comparison, economists calculate that it would take around 300,000 claims to indicate that the unemployment rate will rise.
Low jobless claims are one of the statistics that will reassure Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen about the health of the economy, even as first-quarter output growth and inflation fell short of expectations. At 4.3 percent in May, unemployment is already low, and jobless claims suggest it isn’t rising anytime soon.
Thursday’s release is just the latest sign that the U.S. labor market is still improving, going on seven years in the jobs recovery. In some parts of the country, labor markets are getting “tight,” with employers no longer able to easily find workers. In the second quarter, 61 percent of commercial contractors reported difficulty finding skilled workers, according to the new commercial construction index published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and USG Corporation.
“Don’t bring back those jobs from China just yet because there is no one left to train to work on the shop floors in the Midwest,” MUFG Union Bank economist Chris Rupkey remarked in a commentary on Thursday’s report. “HR departments continue the hunt for skilled workers, and cannot find any. The cupboard is bare.”
In early June, there were just under 1.95 million people receiving unemployment benefits of all durations, which are available up to 26 weeks in most states. Before this spring and summer, that is a number not seen since the early 1970s, when the workforce as a whole was much smaller. In contrast, there were 6.5 million people getting benefits in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
