More Americans filed jobless benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historically low levels despite elevated interest rates and a flurry of job cuts in the media and technology sectors.
Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 214,000 for the week ending Jan. 20, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported this morning.
The four-week average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell by 1,500 to 202,250.
Weekly unemployment claims are viewed as representative for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week. They have remained at extraordinarily low levels despite high interest rates and elevated inflation.
Though layoffs remain at low levels, there has been an uptick in job cuts recently across technology and media.
San Jose, California-based eBay is the latest tech company to roll out a series of layoffs after quickly ramping up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic as people spent more time and money online. The online auction site said Tuesday that it is laying off 1,000 workers.
This month, Google said it was laying off hundreds of employees working on its hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams, while TikTok said it is shedding dozens of workers in ads and sales. Video game developer Riot Games is also trimming 11% of its staff.
Amazon said this month that it plans to cut several hundred jobs in its Prime Video and MGM Studios units.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times announced it would cut 20% of its newsroom, at least 115 employees. Read more.
