US jobless claims fell last week as the labor market held firm amid Federal Reserve interest rate hikes aimed at cooling the economy.

This was announced by the US Department of Labor, quoted by AP, BTA reported.


The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the week ended Feb. 18 fell by 3,000 to 192,000 from 195,000 the previous week.

Thus, claims for unemployment benefits remained below 200,000 for the sixth week in a row.

The four-week average of jobless claims, a steadier measure, rose 1,500 to 191,250.

Jobless claims generally reflect the number of layoffs in the US.

In early February, the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25 percentage points), the eighth increase in less than a year.

The benchmark interest rate is now in the range of 4.5-4.75 percent, the highest level in 15 years.

Central banker Jerome Powell appears to be predicting two more interest rate hikes of another 25 basis points each.

So far, the "hawkish" interest rate policy of the UFR succeeds in mitigating the high inflation, but has a weaker impact on the stable labor market in the country.

Earlier this month, government data showed that US employers added 517,000 new jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest since 1969.

Analysts had expected new jobs to be 185,000.

About 1.65 million Americans received unemployment benefits in the week ended Feb. 11, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week.

US jobless claims fall again