The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment
benefits fell last week, as the U.S. job market held steady in the face of
turmoil in overseas economies and financial markets. Initial jobless claims, a
proxy for layoffs across the U.S., fell by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted
269,000 in the week ended Feb. 6, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was
the lowest level since December. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal
had expected 280,000 new claims last week. Claims for the prior week were
unrevised at 285,000.
Jobless claims data tends to be volatile from week to week,
but have generally been falling since 2009 and have held at historically low
levels for months, consistent with ongoing job creation. But despite last
week’s fall, the four-week moving average of initial claims has steadily crept
up since the end of October, when it hit a post-recession low of 259,250.
Since then, it has risen by more than 20,000 to 281,250, an
upward trend Goldman Sachs economists called “more than just noise” in a recent
analyst note. Last week’s figures are also considered to be free of the
seasonal volatility of the post-holiday period, in which companies may be
laying off temporary hires like retail or warehousing workers. But most
economists were encouraged by the drop in claims, noting that earlier upticks
had been concentrated in states hit hard by winter weather, like Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and Maryland.
Job growth slowed in January, as employers added just
151,000 jobs, a sharp fall from 2015’s monthly average of 228,000. That robust
job creation gave the Federal Reserve leeway to raise interest rates for the
first time in nearly a decade in December. But January’s weaker reading and
continued turmoil in emerging economies and financial markets have clouded the
timeline for further rate increases this year.
Thursday’s report showed the number of continuing
unemployment benefit claims—those drawn by workers for more than a week—fell by
21,000 to 2,239,000 in the week ended Jan. 30. Continuing claims are reported
with a one-week lag. Some economists worry that low claims figures signal a
lack of dynamism in the labor market, or could reflect a population of
long-term unemployed that is not eligible to file new claims.
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