Despite the many headlines about layoffs, American companies are not letting many workers go.
Americans filed 216,000 new claims for unemployment benefits last week, down 6,000 from the previous week and the lowest level since mid-April, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
The decline beat economists' expectations of a rise in claims to 225,000 and suggests companies remain reluctant to cut workers despite growing economic headwinds and a string of high-profile layoffs.
The number of Americans continuing to collect unemployment benefits rose to 1.96 million in the week ending Nov. 15, hovering near levels last seen during the recovery from the pandemic. While the number of initial claims remains relatively low by historical standards, the increase in ongoing claims indicates a more challenging environment for job seekers trying to secure new positions.
The data paints a picture of a labor market in transition, with employers cutting back sharply on hiring but not yet resorting to massive workforce cuts. Companies such as HP, ConocoPhillips, General Motors, Paramount, Target, UPS, Verizon and Amazon have announced plans to cut positions in recent weeks, although those cuts have not been significantly reflected in unemployment statistics.
Weekly claims figures can be volatile around the holidays, and, unadjusted, new claims spiked last week leading up to Thanksgiving. The four-week moving average, which smooths out such fluctuations, fell to 223,750.
The cooling labor market has caught the attention of Federal Reserve officials, who at their last two meetings cited employment concerns as they cut interest rates. But policymakers are divided on whether to pursue another rate cut at their December meeting as they weigh persistent inflation against signs of a softening labor market.
This uncertainty extends to American workers. Consumer confidence fell in November by the most in seven months, partly due to worsening views on employment prospects. A separate October survey found that 55 percent of working Americans are worried about losing their job, while nearly half believe it would take them four months or more to find a comparable job if they were laid off.
The number of ongoing claims has been rising since September, suggesting that while companies are not laying off workers en masse, those who do lose jobs are taking longer to find new ones, a shift from the rapid job turnover that has characterized the pandemic-era labor market.
