Jeffry Bartash of MarketWatch reports that most businesses are reluctant to reduce staffing. Bartash writes:
The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits during Thanksgiving rose to a six-week high, but jobless claims stayed at extremely low levels in a clean bill of health for the U.S. economy.
New claims rose by 9,000 to 224,000 in the seven days ended Nov. 30 from 215,000 in the prior week, the government said Thursday. Still, any number in the low 200,000s is well below the historical average.
Because of the ultra-low number of layoffs, relatively few Americans are losing their jobs and being forced to apply for unemployment benefits.
Those who do lose their jobs, however, are not finding new ones quickly amid a slowdown in hiring. […]
The labor market has cooled off considerably, but is still in good shape. Most companies are satisfied to hold onto their current employees with sales fairly strong.
Hiring probably won’t speed up until interest rates decline further and businesses get a clear idea of what kind of economic policies the Trump administration will pursue.
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