A hiring sign beckons potential employees to apply for work inside a discount store Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Centennial, Colo. On Thursday, April 11, 2024, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. 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.
In March, U.S. employers added a surprising 303,000 jobs, yet another example of the U.S. economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates. The unemployment rate dipped from 3.9% to 3.8% and has now remained below 4% for 26 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s.
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