The Labor Department recently reported a slight increase in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits. There was a rise of 9,000 from the previous week, reaching 221,000 claims for the week ending on March 30th. However, overall layoffs are still at historically low levels, indicating that the labour market continues to perform strongly. This rise nonetheless represents the most significant in two months. The four-week average rose to 214,250, a modest increase of 2,750 from the previous week. As of the week ending March 23rd, a total of 1.79 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits, down 19,000 from the week before.

These weekly figures function as a proxy for the number of layoffs in the U.S. per week, giving a clear indication of how the job market is faring. Since the sizable job-loss purge spurred by the pandemic in the spring of 2020, these figures have stayed consistently low. Despite fears of a potential recession resulting from repeated rate hikes by the Federal Reserve last year, job availability has remained strong and the economy resilient due to solid consumer spending. Recent job cuts across technology and media have been reported, with companies such as Google’s Alphabet, Amazon, eBay and others announcing layoffs. Reductions have also occurred outside the tech sector, with UPS, Macy’s and Levi Strauss cutting jobs.

In order to address issues involving unemployment claims in California, it may be necessary to contact the Employment Development Department (commonly referred to as EDD). Eddcaller.com provides pertinent information on how to contact edd. Aside from providing immediate assistance, this website also serves as a tool for those needing to navigate through the complexities of the unemployment claims process.