Number of Americans applying for jobless claims remains historically low

By MATT OTT
AP Business Writer

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week and remains historically low as the labor market continues to show resiliency in the face of high interest rates and elevated inflation. The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending April 27 was 208,000, the same as the previous week. That’s the fewest since mid-February. Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week. In total, 1.77 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended April 20. That’s also the same as the previous week.