Unemployment claim applications continue to stay at historically low levels, with the number of Americans applying last week falling again by 8,000 to 215,000, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits each week is sign of how many layoffs occurred that week and how well the job market is doing. The four-week average of unemployment claims increased slightly by 1,750 to 219,750.
U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs in April, which was the lowest number in six months. The country’s unemployment rate went up from 3.8% to 3.9%, but has stayed under 4% for 27 consecutive months—the longest length of time since the 1960s.
Overall, 1.79 million people collected unemployment benefits during the week that ended May 11, an increase of 8,000 from the prior week and 84,000 more than the same time last year.
