WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week was unchanged from the week before, a sign that layoffs remain at historically low levels.
U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending Feb. 28 matched the previous week’s 213,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 215,000 new benefit applications.
Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Feb. 21 jumped by 46,000 to 1.87 million.