New weekly claims for jobless benefits fell by 18,000 last week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.
In the week ending Feb. 26, seasonally adjusted new applications for unemployment insurance totaled 215,000, down from a revised total of 233,000 in the previous week. New jobless claims have fallen in five of the past six weeks and have remained in line with pre-pandemic levels for most of 2022.
Layoffs have remained low for months as employers struggle to fill more than 10 million open jobs from a labor…
