For the week ended Mar. 15, seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance stood at 223,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 221,000. Weekly jobless claims are considered a key indicator of layoffs.
The four-week moving average, which helps smooth out short-term fluctuations, rose by 750, to 227,000. Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate remained steady at 1.2 percent for the week ended Mar. 8.
Analysts had expected 224,000 new applications for the week, slightly higher than the actual figure. Jobless claims have mostly remained within the range of 200,000 to 250,000 over the past few years.
The impact of recent federal workforce reductions remains unclear, as the layoffs have yet to fully appear in jobless claims data.
Those layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce with the help of the Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Elon Musk.
Administration officials set the government downsizing in motion late last month via a memo expanding President Donald Trump’s efforts to scale back the federal workforce. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired—though two federal judges last week issued orders requiring the rehiring of thousands of those workers.
However, the Labor Department’s February jobs report showed a reduction of 10,000 federal jobs—the most since June 2022. Economists expect these job losses to become more evident in the March jobs report.
Several high-profile companies announced layoffs in early 2025, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and Facebook parent company Meta.
Unadjusted figures show that actual initial claims under state programs totaled 206,503 for the week ended Mar. 15, marking a 3.5 percent decline from the previous week.
Some states saw notable changes in claims. California reported the largest increase, with 4,280 additional claims, followed by Texas, Virginia, Michigan, and Arizona.
Meanwhile, New York recorded a sharp drop of 15,113 claims, with Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio also seeing significant declines.
Despite minor fluctuations, the labor market appears overall resilient. Employers are generally holding onto workers, and demand for labor continues to be strong in many industries.
The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate edged up to 4.1 percent—still considered a historically healthy level.
