WASHINGTON — The number of Americans using for joblessness advantages fell considerably last week, a indication that the labor market stays strong even as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates in an effort to cool the economy and sluggish inflation.
Applications for outofwork declares fell to 211,000 for the week ending Dec. 10, down by 20,000 from the previous week’s 231,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Jobless declares are seen as a proxy for layoffs, and last week’s level was the mostaffordable in more than 2 months.
The four-week moving average of declares, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,000 to 227,250.
About 1.67 million individuals were getting unemployed help the week that ended Dec. 3, up 1,000 from the week inthepast.
American employees have remarkable task security at the minute, inspiteof an economy some see in threat of tipping into a economicdownturn due to the aggressive interest rate walkings by the Federal Reserve this year. The Fed hasactually raised its standard interest rate 7 times this year in an effort to sluggish the economy and bring down rates that are gobbling up Americans’ incomes.
On Wednesday, the Fed raised its