U.S. weekly jobless claims fall, could help Fed pause rate cuts

Odaily Planet Daily News The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell last week, indicating that the job market remained stable in early February. The U.S. Department of Labor announced on Thursday that the number of initial unemployment claims fell by 7,000 to 213,000 in the week ending February 8, seasonally adjusted. So far this year, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has been on a downward trend, consistent with the historically low unemployment rate. This has helped support economic expansion and allowed the Federal Reserve to pause interest rate cuts while assessing the impact of the Trump administration's policies. Economists believe that Trump's promotion of large-scale deportations of undocumented immigrants, import tariffs and tax cuts will lead to inflation. However, despite the low layoff rate, there are no longer as many job opportunities for the unemployed as about a year ago, and companies have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. (Jinshi)