Applications for jobless claims fall for 3rd straight week

By MATT OTT
AP Business Writer

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell for the third straight week.

That’s good news for American workers, but potentially bad news in the fight against inflation by the Federal Reserve, which has been ratcheting up its benchmark interest rate for a year in an effort to cool the economy, loosen the labor market and tame inflation.

The Labor Department reported that applications for jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending February 25 fell to 190,000 from 192,000 the previous week.

Applications for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for the number of layoffs in the U.S.