States reported that 222,000 workers filed for new unemployment benefits during the week ending Nov. 12, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level and just over the prepandemic average of 218,000.
The number of workers continuing to claim unemployment benefits—1.5 million—is still below the prepandemic average of 1.7 million but has been steadily rising. While the announcements of layoffs at Amazon, Meta and Twitter have received a lot of attention, employers generally continue to hang onto workers as labor remains scarce, especially in the service industries.
Job openings unexpectedly rose in September, and payrolls increased by 261,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate increased marginally to 3.7 percent, just above a half-century low.