A help-wanted sign hangs in the front window of the Bar Harbor Tea Room, Saturday, June 11, 2022, in Bar Harbor, Maine. On Thursday, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
New claims for state unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week. The Labor Department reported that the number of claims dropped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 190,000.
The drop is a "frustrating reminder" for the Federal Reserve that the labor market remains tight despite its efforts to give employers some slack by slowing down the economy, wrote Matthew Martin, U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, in a daily research brief.
The four-week moving average for claims remains near historic lows at 206,000, which tracks with a five-decade low unemployment rate of 3.5 percent.
The numbers may also come as a surprise for those witnessing yet another round of layoffs from the tech sector. Microsoft this week announced plans to cut 10,000 positions, or roughly 5 percent of its workforce, and Amazon began laying off thousands of employees as part of a plan to eventually terminate 18,000 jobs.
What explains the disparity between tech and the rest of the job market?
Dan Ives, analyst for Wedbush Securities, wrote that Microsoft in recent years "needed to aggressively hire along with the rest of the tech sector and spend money like 1980's Rock Stars to keep pace with eye-popping demand."
In his view, this was a classic case of overkill, and now workers are paying the price.
"We are seeing the clock strike midnight for the tech sector after a decade of hyper growth and now major layoffs are being seen at MSFT, Salesforce, Meta, Amazon, among many others across the Valley," he wrote.
Ives called this the "rip the band-aid off moment" for tech.
Not all tech companies are putting employees on the chopping block though. Apple, for example, has not yet announced a major round of layoffs, and it's faced many of the same challenges as the rest of the industry in the wake of the pandemic. One notable difference is that it didn't hire as many people during the pandemic.
Another outlier is Uber. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during an event at the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the ridesharing giant is not considering layoffs at this time.
He noted that the company has tried to make cuts in other areas.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
