Layoffs slightly rise, but stay at pre pandemic levels

The number of workers who filed for jobless claims rose last week but stayed near a historic low, underscoring that employers are unwilling to lay off workers amid a tight labor market. The Labor Department said on Thursday that around 206,000 people filed for unemployment claims in the week ended December 11. That is an increase of 18,000 from the prior week but still the lowest weekly number since 1969.

The number of people receiving community unemployment claims rose to 1.8 million on December 4th while one year ago that number was at 5.6 million. Weekly jobless claims which are a proxy for layoffs have fallen steadily most of the year since peaking near 1 million in early January. Now they are below to a 220,000-a-week level that was typical before the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy in March 2020. In March and April last year, employers shed a whopping 22.4 million jobs. Since then, 18.5 million jobs have returned. 

Employers only added a disappointing 210,000 jobs last month but the unemployment rate has fallen from 4.6% to 4.2%. Businesses and other employers posted a near-record of 11 million jobs in October and 4.2 million people quit their jobs, just off the September record of 4.4 million- a sign that they are confident enough in their prospects to look for something better. 

Source: CBS News