Last week, fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits, which shows that the job market is slowly changing. The Labor Department said that new claims dropped by 22,000 to 220,000 for the week ending on December 14. Economists expected more claims, around 230,000.
This increase in claims has created some uncertainty, making it hard to fully understand what’s happening in the job market. Although job openings and claims show that things aren’t as tight as before the COVID-19 pandemic, the job market is cooling down steadily.
In July, the unemployment rate rose to 4.3% from 3.7% at the beginning of the year. To handle this increase, the Federal Reserve made a significant cut to interest rates in September. Recently, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the risks in the labor market seem to be lessening. The Fed also lowered its main interest rate by 0.25% to between 4.25% and 4.50%. They now predict just two rate cuts next year instead of four, due to strong economic activity and high inflation.
There is still some worry about what policies President-elect Donald Trump will introduce, like taxes and tariffs, which could lead to higher prices. The Fed had raised rates by 5.25% between March 2022 and July 2023 to control inflation.
This claims report helps to better understand the job market’s condition in December. More people who lost their jobs are facing long periods without work, with the average time being close to three years in November. There were also 1.874 million people receiving benefits after their first week of aid, which is a sign of hiring trends.
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