Jobless Claims Slipped Lower Last Week

Jobless claims have hovered around half-century lows since late 2021 as the labor market has continued to improve during the economic recovery. The four-week average for claims, which smooths out volatility, nudged up to 177,250 from 172,750 a week earlier.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the total number of people receiving payments from state unemployment programs, declined to 1.42 million for the week ended April 9 from the previous week’s total of 1.48 million. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.

Other signs of labor-market strength abound. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% last month, and is just above a half-century low touched before the pandemic. Employers have added an average of nearly 600,000 jobs each month this year through March.

Competition for workers has driven up wages, especially in industries facing the worst shortages, like leisure and hospitality. Average hourly earnings grew 5.6% in March from a year earlier. Still, that gain is less than the 8.5% increase in consumer prices over that time.

High employer demand for labor and rising wages are helping draw sidelined workers into the labor force, economists say. The labor-force participation rate—the share of adults working or looking for work—remains below prepandemic levels, but is rising. It increased to 62.4% in March, up from 62.3% in February and from a pandemic low of 60.2% in April 2020.

Write to Sarah Chaney Cambon at [email protected]