By Canadian Press

US jobless aid applications fell to 234,000 last week

Apr 6, 2017 | 5:45 AM

WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign of the job market appears to be increasingly secure for workers.

THE NUMBERS: Weekly applications for unemployment aid plunged 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 234,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped to 250,000.

Over the past year, the number of people collecting benefits had tumbled 7.2 per cent to 2.03 million.

THE TAKEAWAY: U.S. workers face a lower risk of losing their jobs, since applications are a proxy for layoffs. The weekly figure has remained below 300,000, a level linked with job growth, for 109 weeks. That’s the longest such stretch since 1970, when the U.S. population was much smaller.

KEY DRIVERS: The recovery from the Great Recession is nearly eight years old, with the unemployment rate down to a healthy 4.7 per cent. Employers added an average of 237,000 jobs in January and February, a pickup from last year’s average gains of 187,000, according to Labor Department figures.

permanent home

'We're hugely grateful:' Nanaimo Men's Shed group finds a place to call home

43m ago

Making an impact

Nanaimo woman publishes books to open awareness of neurodiverse children

12h ago

iconic voice

Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole, a welcome voice for a half-century, dead at 90

19h ago

The March jobs report to be released Friday is expected to show that employers added 178,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of economists by the data provider FactSet.

But there is the potential that hiring beats those expectations based off a private survey.

On Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said that private businesses added 263,000 jobs in March, the most since December 2014.

Josh Boak, The Associated Press