Employers remain reluctant to lay off workers as the pool of potential job candidates dries up and openings remain near record highs, making conditions ripe for wage gains that may spur Federal Reserve policy makers to raise interest rates by year’s end. Filings have been below 300,000 for 84 straight weeks -- the longest streak since 1970 and a level typical for a healthy labor market.
“These numbers are really remarkable given that the labor force is obviously a lot bigger than it was in 1973,” said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “They tell us of a relatively healthy labor market.”
At the same time, “even though claims are down, there’s still slack in the labor market,” Newport said.