The number of Americans who applied for jobless benefits declined last week, indicating a low number of layoffs across the country, a report said.
Unemployment claims dropped by 18,000 to 215,000 for the week ending on February 26, from 233,000 recorded the previous week, shared the Labor Department on Thursday.
The average of claims for four weeks—compensating for the week’s volatility— decreased by 6,000 to 230,500.
All-in-all, 1,476,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits during the week that ended February 12, which was a slight increase of 2,000 over the prior week’s revised figure that was the lowest since March 14, 1970.
First-time applications for unemployment assistance generally track the rate of layoffs. These have been reduced to healthy pre-pandemic levels, according to the report.
This story originally appeared on Associated Press News.
