US applications for jobless claims hold at healthy levels

By MATT OTT
AP Business Writer

U.S. applications for jobless benefits were unchanged last week, settling at a healthy level as the labor market continues to show strength amid elevated interest rates. Unemployment claims for the week ending March 2 were 217,000, matching the previous week’s revised level, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Weekly unemployment claims are broadly viewed as representative of the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week. In total, 1.9 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits during the week that ended Feb. 24, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week and the most since November.