US jobless claims rise but remain near a half-century low

The variety of people seeking joblessness advantages ticked up recently however remained at a historically low level, showing a robust U.S. labor market with near record-high task openings and few layoffsBy PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics WriterApril 14, 2022, 12:42 PM – 2 minutes readShare to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleWASHINGTON– The variety of people seeking joblessness benefits ticked up last week but remained at a traditionally low level, reflecting a robust U.S. labor market with near record-high task openings and couple of layoffs.Jobless claims rose by 18,000 to 185,000, the Labor Department stated Thursday, after nearly touching the most affordable level considering that 1968 in the previous week. The four-week average of claims, which levels out week-to-week ups and downs, edged up from 170,000 to 172,000. Two years after the coronavirus pandemic sent out the economy into a quick however devastating recession, American employees are enjoying remarkable job security. Weekly applications for joblessness help, a proxy for layoffs, have remained regularly listed below the pre-pandemic level of 225,000. Last year, employers added a record 6.7 million tasks, and theyve added an average of 560,000 more every month up until now in 2022. The unemployment rate, which skyrocketed to 14.7% in April 2020 in the depths of the COVID-19 recession, is now just 3.6%, hardly above the most affordable point in 50 years. And there is a record proportion of 1.7 task openings for each jobless American.The strength of the job market and the general U.S. economy stands out because of a still-destructive pandemic, the economic consequences of Russias war against Ukraine and the greatest customer inflation in 40 years.Fewer than 1.48 million Americans were gathering standard unemployment benefits in the week of April 2.