A job seeker holds paperwork during the Mega JobNewsUSA South Florida Job Fair held in the Amerant Bank Arena on Sept. 25, 2026 in Sunrise, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Employers continue to hold onto workers even as hiring remains weak, sending weekly jobless claims to around their lowest levels in records that stretch back nearly six decades.
Initial filings for unemployment insurance slipped to a seasonally adjusted 194,000 for the week ending Oct. 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
That marked another leg lower in the low-fire trend, with the total just off the 189,000 reported for the week of July 18 that was the lowest since the late 1960s. Claims have averaged 212,000 over the past year, and the four-week moving average is down to 197,750.
Those numbers come against an uncertain backdrop for the labor market.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by just 29,000 in September and have averaged a gain of just 69,000 a month in 2026. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, an increase largely due to a sharp spike in labor force participation. Layoffs have remained modest, declining by 61,000 in August, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Sept. 29.
Over the prior 12 months, the layoff rate measured as a share of the total workforce fell to 1%, down 0.2 percentage point during the period. Job openings were relatively flat during the period.
Federal Reserve officials gather next week to issue their latest decision on interest rates. Policymakers in recent days have characterized the labor market as a source of general strength and focused more of their attention on the nettlesome inflation problem that has kept the pace of price increases well above the central bank's 2% target.
Markets expect the Fed to hold off on a rate hike in October but then to institute another quarter percentage point increase in December.