Jobless claims plunge to 15-year low

Jobless claims filed by US workers dropped 34,000 to 262,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The sharp fall in jobless claims indicates that employers remain confident enough in the economy to hold onto their workers.

|
Lynne Sladky/AP/File
Job applicant Rafael Ferrer shakes hands with a representative of the Hilton Bentley Miami Beach hotel during a job fair at the Hospitality Institute in Miami. Jobless claims fell to a 15-year low last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, April 30, 2015 (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid plummeted to the lowest level in 15 years last week, evidence that employers are laying off few workers despite a sharp slowdown in economic growth.

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 34,000 to 262,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the lowest level since April 2000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped 1,250 to 283,750, near a 15-year low.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the sharp fall indicates that employers remain confident enough in the economy to hold onto their workers.

The economy expanded just 0.2 percent at an annual rate in the January-March quarter, down from the 3.6 percent pace in the second half of last year. Fewer layoffs, however, suggests the growth slowdown may be temporary.

If employers anticipated a longer-lasting slump, it is likely that job cuts and applications for unemployment benefits would rise.

"The trend in claims, below the pre-recession trough, continues to impress," Derek Lindsey, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said. It suggests that weak hiring in March "may have been a blip in an otherwise solid trend."

The number of people receiving aid also fell, dropping 74,000 to 2.25 million. That is the fewest since December 2000.

Most economists blame temporary factors, such as a West Coast port strike and harsh winter weather, for the first quarter's slow growth. Consumers cut back on spending and businesses sharply reduced their investment in new oil and gas drilling, in response to cheaper oil. The strong dollar also weighed on exports and widened the trade gap, dragging down growth.

Yet analysts expect that growth will rebound in the April-June quarter to about 2.5 percent.

In addition, hiring was weak in March. Employers added just 126,000 jobs that month, the fewest in 15 months and snapping a yearlong streak of monthly gains above 200,000. The unemployment rate remained 5.5 percent.

Despite those stumbles, unemployment benefit applications are at rock bottom. For those with jobs, the chances of getting laid off are very low.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Jobless claims plunge to 15-year low
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0430/Jobless-claims-plunge-to-15-year-low
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe