Jobless claims increase in sign of labor market cooling
Zachary Halaschak
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The number of new applications for unemployment benefits rose by 13,000 to 242,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Rising jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, are a sign the labor market is starting to weaken in reaction to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tighten monetary policy to slow economywide spending and bring down inflation.
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The weekly jobless claims number has been closely watched over the past year, given the Fed has been hiking aggressively. The Fed opted to raise rates again on Wednesday, although it signaled that the rate revision may be the last of the series.
While the labor market held up remarkably well last year and at the beginning of this year despite the barrage of rate hikes, there have been recent signs that the labor market is beginning to soften in response to the barrage of rate revisions.
The number of job openings in the United States dropped below 9.6 million in March, the lowest level in about two years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 3.9 million workers quit their jobs in March, down slightly from 4 million the month before. The figure is equivalent to about 2.5% of the workforce.
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In March, 236,000 jobs were added, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month, lower than the average of 334,000 over the last six months (it was the weakest monthly increase since December 2020).
The March employment report showed that wage growth is also slowing. There was a mere 0.3% increase in average hourly earnings, pushing the annual increase to 4.2% — the lowest it has been since June 2021.