Last week, the number of Americans filing for initial unemployment benefits was 213,000.

LootboxPhobia · 2026-03-05T20:31:27+00:00

Last week, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits was 213,000, unchanged from the previous week and below expectations, indicating a stable labor market. Despite concerns about layoffs due to AI, the Federal Reserve Chair stated that the market is stabilizing and expects interest rates to remain unchanged. However, the conflict between the U.S. and Iran may impact the rate cut expectations. The February employment report will be released on Friday.

LootboxPhobia

2026-03-05 20:31:27

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Investing.com - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week was 213,000, unchanged from the previous week and below expectations, which may indicate that the U.S. labor market showed some stability at the end of February.

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Economists previously expected the initial jobless claims for the week ending February 28 to be 215,000. The initial claims for the week ending February 21 were 213,000.

The report released on Thursday is the latest signal that the U.S. job market is maintaining moderate hiring with limited layoffs, despite rising concerns about potential layoffs caused by artificial intelligence. Last week, payment group Block, led by Jack Dorsey, announced it would lay off about 40% of its employees—over 4,000—citing that AI has “created a new way of working that fundamentally changes the meaning of building and running a company.”

Nevertheless, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has described the labor market as stabilizing, supporting market expectations that the central bank will keep interest rates unchanged at least until Powell’s term ends in May.

However, escalating conflicts between Iran, the U.S., and Israel have heightened market expectations that the Fed may delay further rate cuts.

The official comprehensive labor market report for February will be released on Friday. Analysts expect the growth rate to slow down after a significant increase in non-farm payrolls in January. However, the unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 4.3% from January.

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