The latest U.S. jobless-claims snapshot showed layoffs holding near recent-year lows, even as the job market faces mounting uncertainty that has slowed hiring, according to Labor Department data cited by the Associated Press.
For the week ending March 7, the Labor Department reported 213,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits, a drop of 1,000 from the prior week. Economists surveyed by FactSet had expected 215,000 new filings, and analysts have treated the weekly initial claims figure as a near-real-time read on layoffs. The claim level also tracked closely with the range the Labor Department data have suggested in recent years, when weekly layoffs often stayed between 200,000 and 250,000.
The Labor Department also reported that the four-week moving average of jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 212,000, a smoothing measure intended to reduce week-to-week volatility. Separately, the government said the total number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment benefits for the week ending Feb. 28 fell by 21,000 to 1.85 million.
While weekly layoffs remained muted in the latest data, the Associated Press report said high-profile companies have announced job cuts in recent weeks. The companies mentioned included Morgan Stanley, UPS, and Amazon, among others.
The labor-market picture remained mixed partly because of a recent revision in payroll employment, the report said. The Labor Department unexpectedly cut 92,000 jobs in February, and revisions then slashed 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls, nudging the unemployment rate up to 4.4%. The Associated Press report added that job openings fell in December to the lowest level in more than five years, and that the January report on openings was expected next week.
Economists have described the current labor market as stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” pattern: unemployment stays historically low, but people out of work still face difficulty finding a new job. Over the past year, hiring has slowed, the report said, with uncertainty attributed to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and to the lingering effect of high interest rates set by the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 to tamp down pandemic-driven inflation.
Inflation and policy expectations remained part of the backdrop for investors and policymakers as well. The Associated Press report said a report released Wednesday showed U.S. consumers paid 2.4% more for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living in February than a year earlier. It said the year-over-year rate was the same as the prior month and better than economists’ 2.5% expectation, but remained above the 2% target the Fed has set, and that it did not include a spike in gasoline prices this month tied to the war in Iran.
The Fed’s preferred inflation measure—personal consumption expenditures, or PCE—was scheduled to come out Friday, just days before the Fed meets to decide on interest rates.