Americans filed some 13,000 fewer applications for jobless benefits last week.
According to statistics released by the Labor Department Thursday, unemployment claim applications fell to 198,000 for the week. That’s the fewest since January.
Jobless claim applications are considered a proxy for layoffs.
The four-week moving average of claims dropped slightly to 205,750.
The statistics come as the Federal Reserve continues to monitor the job market in its continuing flight against a stubborn inflation rate. The Fed left its benchmark borrowing rate alone at its most recent meeting, but it has raised the rate 11 times since March 2022, with part of its goal to cool hiring and bring down wages. But the labor market has held up better than expected.
In September, the government reported that employers added 336,000 jobs, easily surpassing the 227,000 for August and raising the average gain for each of the past three months to a robust 266,000, the Associated Press reported. The unemployment rate remained at 3.8%, close to a half-century low.
In August, American employers posted a surprising 9.6 million job openings, up from 8.9 million in July and the first uptick in three months.
Overall, 1.73 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended Oct. 7, about 29,000 more than the previous week.
