Americans applied for fewer unemployment benefits at the end of 2019, the Labor Department announced Thursday. The number dropped by 2,000 to 222,000 in the seven days up until December 28, although the four-week average ticked up by 4,750 to 233,250.
The report beat expectations that had predicted 225,000 new claims, according to Reuters. The result marks the third consecutive weekly decline.
“I think we’re definitely going to see slightly smaller growth month by month than what we saw in 2019 and that’s consistent with economists expectations’ of the macroeconomy weakening slightly,” in the labor market, Beth Akers, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, told Cheddar.
She will be keeping an eye on manufacturing trends and changes in policy regarding trade for indications about how job numbers will grow (or shrink) in 2020.
“If you’re looking to something to be concerned about, you can look at the four-week moving average, which is up from what it’s been over the course of the year,” Akers said. “But, by and large, these are really strong, positive numbers for the labor market.”
Stocks faded in the last hour of trading and ended mostly lower Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average set their latest record highs
U.S. health advisers have endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for younger children.
U.S. consumer confidence rose in October after three straight declines as the public’s anxiety about the delta variant of coronavirus appears to have abated.
Sales of new homes jumped 14% in September to the fastest pace in six months as strong demand helped offset rising prices.
Last spring, as false claims about vaccine safety threatened to undermine the world's response to COVID-19, researchers at Facebook found they could reduce vaccine misinformation by tweaking how vaccine posts show up on users' newsfeeds.
Stocks held on to modest gains on Wall Street Tuesday, pushing the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average further into record heights.
A report in the New York Times published Sunday called 'Inside Amazon's Worst Human Resources Problem' details the company mishandling paid and unpaid leave for some of its workers for more than a year and a half, following an email sent to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos from a new mother who works at a warehouse in Oklahoma, which then led to an internal investigation at Amazon. Seattle tech correspondent for the New York Times Karen Weise joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to talk about her report and what the Amazon investigation found.
Moderna says its low-dose COVID-19 vaccine is safe and appears to work in 6- to 11-year-olds.
Facebook the company is losing control of Facebook the product — and of the carefully crafted image it’s spent over a decade selling despite problems like misinformation, human trafficking, and pervasive extremist groups on its platform.
Microsoft says the same Russia-backed hackers responsible for the 2020 SolarWinds breach continue to attack the global supply chain and have been targeting cloud service resellers and others.
