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US weekly jobless claims rise slightly to 212,000 as layoffs stay moderateHowever, government revisions cut 2024-2025 US payrolls by hundreds of thousands, reducing the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000. That’s about one-third of the previously reported 584,000, and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.By CNBC-TV18 February 26, 2026, 8:16:14 PM IST (Updated)2 Min ReadApplications for US unemployment benefits edged higher last week, indicating that layoffs remain moderate.

For the week ending February 21, the Labour Department reported that initial claims increased by 4,000 to 212,000, matching expectations from analysts surveyed by FactSet. Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as representative of US layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Earlier this month, the Labour Department reported that US employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4%.

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However, government revisions cut 2024-2025 US payrolls by hundreds of thousands, reducing the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000. That’s about one-third of the previously reported 584,000, and the weakest since the pandemic year of 2020.

While weekly layoffs have remained in a historically low range, mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years, a number of high-profile companies have announced job cuts recently, including UPS, Amazon, Dow and the Washington Post in recent weeks.

The Labour Department also recently reported that job openings fell in December to the lowest level in more than five years. For now, the US job market appears stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job.

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Data over the past year has broadly revealed a labour market in which hiring has clearly slowed, hobbled by uncertainty stoked by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Fed engineered in 2022 and 2023 to tamp down a spike of pandemic-induced inflation.

Economists are conflicted about whether the stronger-than-expected January job gains are a one-off or possibly the first sign of a recovering labour market, which could lead the Fed to further delay more cuts to its key interest rate.Continue Reading(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)First Published: Feb 26, 2026 8:14 PM ISTTagsUS Jobless claimsUS unemployment