WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week as the labor market continues to thrive despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to cool it.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week swings, fell by 250 to 214,250. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in a bid to stifle the four-decade high inflation that took hold after the economy bounced back from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. Part of the Fed’s goal was to loosen the labor market and cool wage growth, which it believes contributed to persistently high inflation.
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