US applications for jobless claims hold at healthy levels

abcnews.go.com:

U.S. applications for jobless benefits were unchanged last week, settling at a healthy level as the labor market continues to show strength amid elevated interest rates

U.S. applications for jobless benefits were unchanged last week, settling at a healthy level as the labor market continues to show strength in the face of elevated interest rates.

Unemployment claims for the week ending March 2 were 217,000, matching the previous week's revised level, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell by 750 from the previous week to 212,250.

Weekly unemployment claims are broadly viewed as representative of the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week. They have remained at historically low levels since the pandemic purge of millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.

In total, 1.9 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended Feb. 24, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week and the most since November.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in an effort to bring down the four-decade high inflation that took hold after the economy roared back from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. Part of the Fed’s goal was to loosen the labor market and cool wage growth, which it believes contributed to persistently high inflation.

Many economists thought the rapid rate hikes could potentially tip the country into recession, but that hasn’t happened. Jobs have remained plentiful and the economy has held up better than expected thanks to strong consumer spending.

U.S. employers delivered a stunning burst of hiring to begin 2024, adding 353,000 jobs in January in the latest sign of the economy’s continuing