Today’s weekly update on new unemployment filings is a fresh reminder that it’s hard to be a pessimist on the US labor market these days. Jobless claims fell a healthy 14,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 298,000—close to last month’s post-recession low of 279,000. More importantly, the longer-term trend continues to look encouraging. Although the short-term volatility for this series can be confusing, the big-picture view is quite clear: layoffs are winding lower. That’s been true for some time and today’s releases offers another dose of the same.
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