WASHINGTON — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 last week, remaining in the same historically healthy range of the past few years even as concerns grow about the health of the labor market.
The number of Americans applying for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 13 declined by 13,000 to 224,000 from the previous week’s 237,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s more than analysts’ forecast of 200,000 new applications.
Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
Earlier this week, the government reported that the U.S. gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, the highest since 2021.
The November job gains were higher than the 40,000 economists had forecast. The October job losses were caused by a 162,000 drop in federal workers, many of whom resigned at the end of fiscal year 2025 on Sept. 30 under pressure from billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of U.S. government payrolls.
Labor Department revisions also knocked 33,000 jobs off August and Septem