US jobless claims rose to 206,000 in the week ending August 29, but the increase did little to alter the picture of a labour market where lay-offs remain historically uncommon.
The latest figure from the US Labor Department was up from a revised 204,000 the previous week. The four-week average, which helps smooth out weekly fluctuations, increased by 1,500 to 207,250.
Initial claims are closely watched as an indicator of redundancies and the wider direction of employment. They have generally remained between 200,000 and 230,000 a week over the past year, a range considered unusually low by historical standards.
Continuing claims, covering people still receiving unemployment benefits after their initial application, rose by 8,000 to 1.779 million in the week ending August 22.
The figures suggest employers remain reluctant to release staff after the severe worker shortages that followed the Covid-19 lockdowns. The US unemployment rate remains low at 4.1 per cent.
US labour market shows signs of a “no-hire, no-fire” pattern
However, the relative security enjoyed by people already in work is being matched by a slowdown in recruitment. The Labor Department’s latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed that hiring fell by 5 per cent in July to about 5.1 million.
There were 7.3 million job openings in July, while total separations were also little changed at 5.1 million. Lay-offs and discharges stood at 1.7 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hiring fell particularly sharply in professional and business services, where it dropped by 188,000 over the month. The result is a labour market that economists describe as “no-hire, no-fire”: workers with jobs face relatively little immediate risk of losing them, while young people and the unemployed may find it increasingly difficult to secure new positions.
