United States filings for unemployment benefits and company layoffs reach historic lows.
Filings for jobless aid for the week ending 28 February matched the previous week’s 213,000, according to the Department of Labor.
Analysts from FaceSheet expected this week’s level to reach 215,000.
This comes after the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.2% to 4.4%.
However, government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands, reducing the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000.
That’s about one-third of the previously reported 584,000, and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.
According to data released by Challenger, Grey & Christmas, U.S.-based layoffs dropped 56%, from 108,435 in January to 48,307 in February.
This also marks a 72% from the 172,017 reported in the same month last year.
In total, employers have announced 156,742 during the first months of the year, which is the lowest January-to-February total since 2022.
However, Challenger, Gray & Christmas chief revenue officer Andy Challenger said that the change could be temporary.
He said rising economic and geopolitical uncertainty, particularly linked to the growing conflict involving Iran, could lead companies to tighten spending and announce additional layoffs toward the end of the year.
Companies most frequently cited store or unit closures, market and economic conditions and corporate restructuring as the primary reasons for job cuts. Artificial Intelligence was also mentioned as a factor in 4.680K layoffs announced in February.
Hiring intentions also remain significantly weaker, as employers announce plans to hire 18,061 workers so far this year, representing a 56% decline compared with the same period in 2025.
