US Jobless Claims Fall to 227,000 Last Week

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The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining within the historically healthy range of the past few years. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 7 fell by 5,000 to 227,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported.

Why it matters

Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of U.S. layoffs and are a close to real-time indicator of the health of the job market. While weekly layoffs have remained in a historically low range, a number of high-profile companies have announced job cuts recently, leaving Americans increasingly pessimistic about the economy.

The details

The Labor Department also recently reported that job openings fell in December to the lowest level in more than five years, another sign that the American labor market remains sluggish, even though the economy is registering solid growth. Data over the past year has broadly revealed a labor market in which hiring has clearly slowed, hobbled by uncertainty raised by President Donald Trump's tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Fed engineered in 2022 and 2023 to tamp down a spike of pandemic-induced inflation.

• The week ending Feb. 7 saw 227,000 new jobless claims, down 5,000 from the previous week.
• In December, job openings fell to the lowest level in more than five years.