U.S. weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level in decades amid tight labor market

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Initial jobless claims in the United States last week fell to 187,000, the lowest level since September 1969, indicating continued labor market tightness, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday.

In the week ending March 19, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased by 28,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 225,000, according to a report released by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Companies are struggling to hire as labor market supply cannot meet demand. There are a record 1.7 posted job openings for each person who is looking for work, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Monday at a National Association for Business Economics event.

"By many measures, the labor market is extremely tight, significantly tighter than the very strong job market just before the pandemic," said Powell, noting that nominal wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades.

Robust wage growth, though good news for workers, could feed into the already elevated inflation, increasing the risk of sustained high inflation, according to economists.

"Inflation is much too high," Powell said, noting that the central bank will, if needed, move "more aggressively" to raise federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at its policy meetings to curb inflation.

The latest jobless claims report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits, which run a week behind the headline numbers, decreased by 67,000 to 1.35 million. That number peaked in April and May in 2020, when it was over 20 million.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs -- state and federal combined -- for the week ending March 5 decreased by 110,749 to nearly 1.86 million.