Washington —The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has risen to their highest level since August, but is still low by historical standards.
Labor Department reported on Wednesday that 240,000 people applied for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week. The four-week claims moving average that smoothes weekly fluctuates by 5500 to 226750.
Apply for unemployment benefits is an agent for layoffs, and the current low levels show that American workers enjoy extraordinary job security, but it may not last.
To cope with inflation, which hit a 40-year high earlier this year, Fed raised the benchmark interest rate six times since March. The housing market is falling under pressure from mortgage rates, which more than doubled from a year ago. Many economists expect the U.S. to fall into recession next year as borrowing costs slow down economic activity.
But the job market is still strong. Employers added 261,000 jobs last month, creating an average of nearly 407,000 jobs per month this year. ——In government records, 2022 became the second best recruitment year (second only to 2021), which can be traced back to 1940. Every unemployed American has almost two jobs. The unemployment rate is 3.7%, several points higher than the lowest point in half a century.
At the beginning of this year, new weekly unemployment benefits applications were extremely low—for most of February, March and April, unemployment benefits applications were below 200,000. They began to rise in late spring, reaching 261,000 in mid-July, and then lowered again. "As the rate of rises, the number of layoffs will rise as demand weakens," Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at high-frequency economics, said in a research note. "However, given that companies are still fighting labor shortages and are reluctant to lay off employees, this move may be gradual." The Labor Department said Wednesday that 1.55 million people received unemployment aid in the week ending November 12, an increase of 48,000 from the previous week.
