Although more Americans claimed for unemployment benefits last week, despite declining inflation and rising interest rates, the work market is still generally strong.
The Labor Department announced on Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits increased by 13,000 to 231,000 for the week ending Nov. 11. In three months, that is the most.
Applications for unemployment benefits are thought to be an indicator of how many people are laid off in a particular week.
A less erratic indicator of claims, the four-week moving average, increased by 7,750 to 220,250.
The week ending Nov. 4 saw 1.87 million persons receiving unemployment benefits overall, which is a 32,000 increase over the previous week and the highest number since March.
Analysts speculate that a large number of people who are already unemployed may be finding it more difficult to obtain new employment, which is why those so-called “continuing claims” are gradually increasing.
Despite this, the US labor market is still resilient and the Federal Reserve is still working to bring inflation back down to its objective of 2%.
The U.S. central bank has hiked rates eleven times since March 2022 in an attempt to control inflation, which hit a four-decade high in 2022, even though Fed officials decided to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at their most recent policy meeting. The Fed wants to calm the labor market and economy, which should restrain the rise in prices, according to officials.
Though it’s been a protracted struggle, the Fed seems to be making progress.
For the first time in almost a year, there was no overall increase in inflation between September and October. This was due to changes in consumer prices. Prices increased 3.2% in October over the previous year, which was the lowest increase since June, but it was still higher than the Fed’s 2% inflation target.
September saw 9.6 million job opportunities from companies, up from 9.5 million in August, according to a Labor Department data earlier this month. From 1.7 million to 1.5 million people were laid off.
Private firms in the United States reduced hiring in October, adding a meager but respectable 150,000 jobs.
The rate of job growth last month was strong enough to indicate that many businesses are still looking to hire and that the economy is still healthy, even if it was much slower than the strong addition of 297,000 jobs in September.
