WASHINGTON -- More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but their numbers remained at low levels consistent with a healthy job market.
The number of people seeking unemployment aid rose by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The less-volatile four-week average rose by 750 to 268,000. The number of people collecting unemployment checks was 2.24 million, down nearly 7 percent from a year earlier. Weekly claims have now been below 300,000 for 54 straight weeks, the longest streak since 1973.
The numbers reflect a healthy job market. Joblessness claims are a proxy for layoffs. Employers added 242,000 jobs last month, and the nation's unemployment rate stayed at an eight-year low of 4.9 percent. In Arkansas, the unemployment rate in January fell to 4.4 percent, a 15-year low.
"It is hard to believe that the labor market could strengthen even further, but the claims data would suggest that it may have," Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, wrote in a research note.
The U.S. economy has proved resilient in the face of economic weakness overseas and volatility in financial markets.
U.S. consumers are spending at a healthy pace. They are spending more at restaurants and on mobile data. Low gasoline prices have also left more money to spend on other items.
Consumers are also confident enough to purchase big-ticket items such as homes and cars. Construction firms are hiring. But factories have cut output because exports have been hurt by faltering demand in foreign markets and a strong dollar that makes U.S. goods more expensive overseas.
Total hiring in the U.S. job market fell sharply in January, the Labor Department said Thursday, but the number of people quitting their jobs also dropped.
Businesses posted more open jobs, a sign they are still interested in bringing more workers on board, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.
Job openings jumped 4.9 percent to 5.5 million in January, the most since July, the Labor Department said.
"It's still a very good reading on job openings," said Stan Shipley, an economist at Evercore ISI in New York. "Demand for workers is running faster than we thought. Businesses will have to boost wages."
Total hiring fell 6.9 percent to 5 million. And the number of people who quit their jobs dropped from just over 3 million in December to 2.8 million in January.
Quits are a sign of confidence in the job market and can also lead to higher pay, because most Americans leave a job for a higher-paying position.
The figures parallel previous data that showed the job gains slowed in January, likely in part because of harsh winter weather.
Net hiring, as reported in the separate monthly jobs report, fell in January before rebounding in February. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data include raw hiring figures that are offset by quits, layoffs and retirements to produce the net data.
Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen has said she watches the quits and hiring data closely for additional signs of the job market's health.
The Fed decided to keep the short-term interest rate it controls unchanged after a two-day meeting Wednesday, after raising it for the first time in nearly a decade in December.
Information for this article was contributed by Paul Wiseman and Christopher S. Rugaber of The Associated Press and by Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg News.
Business on 03/18/2016