Unemployment filings in the United States dropped last week, as fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits while the labor market remains tight and inflation pressures continue to persist.
Applications for jobless claims for the week ended Jan. 21 fell to 186,000 from 192,000 the previous week, the Department of Labor reported on Jan. 26.
This was the first time in nine months that unemployment files have fallen below 200,000 in back-to-back weeks.
Jobless claims have generally served as a proxy for layoffs, which have been relatively low, since the economy recovered from the pandemic, which wiped out millions of jobs in the first months of 2020.
About 1.68 million people were receiving unemployment assistance for the week ended Jan. 14, an increase of 20,000 from the week before….