The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits increased by 9,000 people to a total of 221,000, their highest levels in two months, the Labor Department reported Thursday. At the same time, however, layoffs have stayed at historically low levels.
The number of people actually receiving unemployment during the week that ended March 23 actually decreased by 19,000 compared to the previous week, with a total of 1.79 million people collecting jobless benefits. Unemployment claims are often considered representative of the amount of layoffs in the week and can signal the future of the job market. However, layoffs have stayed put at historically low levels since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020.
An unexpected 275,000 jobs were added in February, though unemployment rates went up two-tenths of a point to 3.9%. It marked the 25th month in a row that unemployment stayed below 4%, which is the longest streak since the 1960s.
