Your Economy (No Politics)

[mr40]

Jobless claims plunge to 222,000, second-lowest mark in decades.

Joseph Lawler writes in the Washington Examiner that “new applications for unemployment benefits dropped 7,000 to 222,000 in the second full week of February . . . the second-lowest mark of the recovery and a good sign for the economy.”

Forecasters had expected new jobless claims to remain steady at an ultra-low 230,000. Lower claims are good news because they mean fewer people are getting laid off.

Thursday's mark is the lowest since the early 1970s, setting aside the week of January 13, when claims touched as low as 216,000.

Lawler notes that the Trump Administration “has set a goal of not just lowering unemployment, but also raising the labor force participation rate, bringing workers who may have quit the job search in recent years back into the hunt.”

The unemployment rate already stands at 4.1 percent, the lowest since the turn of the century. And there are just 1.1 unemployed workers for every advertised job opening, a lower ratio than during the housing boom.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jobless-claims-plunge-to-222000-second-lowest-mark-in-decades/article/2649719