Unemployed workers being interviewed at a job fair in Chicago, April 11, 2023 (GETTY/AFP/Archives/SCOTT OLSON)
Weekly jobless claims fell again in early January in the United States, even falling to their lowest level since September 2022, as the job market remained strong despite the Fed’s rate hikes intended to slow economic activity. , and therefore inflation.
Between January 7 and 13, 187,000 people registered to receive unemployment benefits, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
This is 16,000 fewer than the previous week, and this surprised analysts who anticipated a rebound, and were counting on 208,000 new registrations, according to the Market Watch consensus.
“Registrations at their lowest level in more than a year reflect a strong labor market,” Matthew Martin, an economist for Oxford Economics, commented in a note.
“It is possible that the bad weather in the Great Plains and the Northeast has reduced registrations,” however, puts into perspective Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics, who predicts “a rebound” by the end of the month.
In total, 1.8 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the United States at the beginning of January, according to this data.
This is also down from the previous week, and is the lowest since October.
“The labor market will slow down over the coming months” although there will still be job creation and a “low” unemployment rate, anticipates Rubeela Farooqi, chief economist for High Frequency Economics.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.7% in December. But the job market was much stronger than expected, with 216,000 jobs created, up from 173,000 in November.
Since July, Fed rates have been in a range of 5.25 to 5.50%, their highest level in more than 20 years.
The next meeting of the Fed’s monetary policy committee, the FOMC, will take place on January 30-31. A maintenance of rates is mainly expected by market players, then a first reduction at the following meeting, on March 19 and 20, according to the CME Group assessment.
© 2024 AFP
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