Jobless Claims Hold Steady Ahead of Friday’s Big Employment ReportJohn Carney 7 Dec 2023
The number of Americans losing their jobs and applying for unemployment benefits was nearly unchanged last week at 220,000, indicating that businesses continue to hold on to workers even though economic growth appears to have slowed and job openings have declined.
Economists were expecting jobless claims to climb to 222,000 from the initial estimate of 218,000 from the prior week. The earlier figure was revised up to 219,000.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits are a proxy for layoffs. Current levels of claims indicate historically low levels of layoffs.
The Department of Labor will release its monthly employment situation report on Friday. It is expected to show that the economy added 180,000 jobs in November, up from 150,000 jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 3.9 percent. Private payrolls are forecast as increasing by 150,000, up from the 99,000 growth last month. A big contributor to the increase is expected to be manufacturing, which shed 35,000 jobs during the autoworkers strike and is seen as adding those back last month.
more
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2023/12/07/jobless-claims-hold-steady-ahead-of-fridays-big-employment-report/
