US filings for jobless aid tick up last week to 210,000 but remain at
historically healthy levels
[March 27, 2026] By
MATT OTT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for jobless aid
inched up last week as employers continue to retain workers despite a
labor market that has weakened considerably in the past year.
U.S. applications for jobless aid for the week ending March 21 rose by
5,000 to 210,000 from the previous week’s 205,000, the Labor Department
reported Thursday. That’s right in line with the 210,000 new filings
analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.
Filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S.
layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job
market.
While weekly layoffs have remained in a healthy range mostly between
200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years, a number of high-profile
companies have announced job cuts recently, including Morgan
Stanley,Block, UPSand Amazon.
Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers
unexpectedly cut 92,000 jobs in February, a sign that the labor market
remains under strain. Revisions also slashed 69,000 jobs from December
and January payrolls, nudging the unemployment rate up to 4.4%.
The surprisingly weak employment picture in February adds to the
economic uncertainty over the war with Iran, which has caused oil prices
to surge more than 40% and saddled business and consumers with higher
costs.
This comes at a time when inflation was already relatively high in the
U.S.
The Commerce Department recently reported that the Fed’s preferred
inflation gauge rose 2.8% in January compared with a year earlier.
That’s above the Fed’s 2% target and the latest sign that prices were
persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and
gas costs.
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A now hiring sign sits on the side of the road in Garland, Texas,
Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
 That persistent inflation, combined
with the uncertainties brought on by the conflict in the Middle
East, led the Fed to leave its benchmark lending rate alone at its
last meeting. Central bank officials voted to raise the rate three
times to close 2025 out of concern for a weakening job market.
The U.S. job market appears stuck in what economists call a
“low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate
historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find
a new job.
Data over the past year has broadly revealed a labor market in which
hiring has clearly slowed, hobbled by uncertainty stoked by
President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of the
high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023
to tamp down a spike of pandemic-induced inflation.
The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week
moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly
swings, dipped by 250 to 210,500.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for
the previous week ending March 14 fell by 32,000 to 1.82 million,
the government said. That's the lowest number of continuing claims
since May 25, 2024 when it was 1,804,000.
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