The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits holds steady as labor market remains strong

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits didn’t change last week as the labor market continues to defy efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool hiring.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending April 13 were unchanged from the previous week’s 212,000.

The four-week average of claims, which softens some of the weekly volatility, was also unchanged at 214,500.

Weekly unemployment claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week and a sign of where the job market is headed. They have remained at historically low levels since the pandemic purge of millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in a bid to stifle the four-decade high inflation that took hold after the economy rebounded from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. The Fed’s intention was to loosen the labor market and cool wage growth, which it said contributed to persistently high inflation.