Unemployment Claims Show Employers Continue to Retain Their Workers

Initial claims, which measure those receiving unemployment benefits for the first time, dropped by 3,000 to 224,000. Continuing claims, which measure those continuing to receive unemployment benefits, fell 15,000 to 1,953,000. This report marks the 12th straight week that continuing claims have remained above 1,900,000.

What’s the bottom line? The story remains the same: employers are holding onto their existing workers the best they can, and once someone is let go, it’s taking longer to find a job as there is less hiring being done, as evidenced in the last three BLS job reports.