{"id":926530,"date":"2026-10-09T12:46:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T12:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926530\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T12:46:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T12:46:55","slug":"unemployment-benefit-claims-dipped-slightly-last-week-as-layoffs-remain-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926530\/","title":{"rendered":"Unemployment benefit claims dipped slightly last week as layoffs remain low"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits fell slightly last week as layoffs remain low and most American workers enjoy job security<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Labor Department said Thursday that initial jobless claims ticked down to 197,000 from a revised 199,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, dropped by 2,500 to 198,000. <\/p>\n

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and economists watch them because they can be a sign of where the job market is headed. So far this year, claims have remained at a historically low level below 220,000. <\/p>\n

The report suggests that most companies are confident enough in the economy and their sales to hold onto their workers. At the same time, hiring has been sluggish<\/a>, resulting in a “low-hire, low-fire” job market. Last month, the unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2%. <\/p>\n

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has fallen below 200,000 for four straight weeks now, “an incredibly low level of layoffs for a sustained period of time that hasn’t been seen since the 1960s,” said Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union. <\/p>\n

At the same time, those out of work are having a more difficult time finding a new job. The number of people unemployed for more than six months is at a five-year high, Long noted. <\/p>\n

The government said last week that businesses and other employers added just 29,000 jobs in September, down from 133,000 in August and below what economists had forecast. <\/p>\n

Yet with population growth slowing and immigration into the United States dropping, the economy doesn’t need to generate as many jobs every month to keep the unemployment rate low. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits fell slightly last week as layoffs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[15261,45,161,49,48,46,133,1828,1829,74172,1830,1831,39783,8123,131,2519,968,1705,2511,1832,1833,176,74173,3322,74174],"class_list":["post-926530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-401k","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-finance","tag-financial-information","tag-investing","tag-investment-tools","tag-investor","tag-market-news","tag-mortgage","tag-mutual-funds","tag-personal-finance","tag-quote","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-stock","tag-stock-research","tag-stock-valuation","tag-stocks","tag-suze-orman","tag-tax","tag-track-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}