US jobless claims hit a two-month high while layoffs jumped as well, according to two sets of labor data released a day before Friday's more important jobs report for October
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th October, 2022) US jobless claims hit a two-month high while layoffs jumped as well, according to two sets of labor data released a day before Friday's more important jobs report for October.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, increased to a seasonally adjusted 219,000 last week from a revised 190,000 the week before, the Labor Department said in a statement on Thursday.
That was a high since late August but still close to the 2019 average of 218,000 for jobless claims, which have hovered around the pre-pandemic average for most of this year.
Layoffs, as measured by private firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., showed that job cuts surged by 46% in September from August levels, and 68% from August 2021.
"Some cracks are beginning to appear in the labor market. Hiring is slowing and downsizing events are beginning to occur," said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at the firm.
The labor market has been the juggernaut of the US economy, spearheading its recovery from the two-year long coronavirus pandemic.
Joblessness among Americans reached an all-time high of 14.8% in April 2020, with the loss of some 20 million jobs after the COVID-19 breakout. Since then, the Labor Department's more important non-farm payrolls report has reported hundreds of thousands of job additions every month, with the trend keeping up in August. US average hourly earnings have risen without stop since June 2021.
The Labor Department's next non-farm payrolls report for September is due on October 7. Economists are expecting the US economy to have created 250,000 jobs last month, with the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.7% and wage growth staying elevated.
