This post was originally published on this site
Bloomberg News/Landov Companies are still hiring even though the economy has slowed.
The numbers: The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits at the end of 2019 fell slightly, showing the pace of layoffs in the U.S. remains near a half-century low.
Initial jobless claims slipped by 2,000 to 222,000 in the seven days ended Dec. 28, the government said Thursday. That matched the MarketWatch forecast.
Claims are seen as a rough measure of how many people are losing their jobs.
Read: Fed signals no change in interest rates in 2020 in more upbeat view of the economy
What happened: A handful of the largest states show big ups and down in new claims at the end of the year, but such large swings typically reflect temporary changes tied to the holiday season. Companies in industries such as retail and shipping hire lots of workers to handle the holiday rush and trim payrolls afterward.
The monthly average of new claims, meanwhile, rose by 4,750 to 233,250 and hit the highest level since January 2018. Yet the increase is the residue of a spike in claims after Thanksgiving that has already dissipated. The four-week average should fall again in the next several weeks.
The number of people already collecting unemployment benefits, known as continuing claims, increased by 5,000 to 1.73 million.
Big picture: The U.S. labor market is still quite robust even though the economy has slowed. While companies aren’t hiring as many workers, they haven’t resorted to widespread layoffs. They worry they won’t be able to rehire them if the economy speeds up.
With wages rising and unemployment near a 50-year low, Americans continue to spend enough to prolong a record economic expansion now in its 11th year.
Market reaction:The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.27% and S&P 500 SPX, +0.29% were set to open higher Thursday on the first day of trading in 2020.
The 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, -1.83% was unchanged at 1.92%.
