Job seekers speak with recruiters during a career fair in San Francisco. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg.
Applications for unemployment benefits were little changed in the U.S. last week, steadying at low levels after a volatile holiday season.
Initial claims increased by 1,000, to 200,000, in the week ended January 17, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 209,000. Applications have been at or below 200,000 just a few times in the past three years, most of them around the holidays. Such figures are consistent with a labor market defined by limited layoffs.
After three consecutive rate cuts in an effort to bolster the job market, Federal Reserve officials are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged next week.
The four-week moving average of new applications, a metric that helps smooth out volatility, fell to 201,500 last week, a two-year low.
.What Bloomberg economists say...“With U.S. companies adding fewer seasonal workers, post-holiday layoffs have been limited, keeping initial jobless claims low. Layoff-related news remains relatively sparse, offering little indication that broader labor-market conditions have changed.”— Eliza Winger |
Initial claims also dropped before adjusting for seasonal factors. New York, Georgia, and Texas saw some of the largest declines.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, fell to 1.85 million in the previous week, to the lowest since November.
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