The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in six months last week as layoffs remain at relatively healthy levels.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claim applications fell by 4,000 to 217,000 for the week of Nov. 9. That’s less than the 225,000 analysts forecast.
The four-week average of weekly claims, which evens out some of the weekly ups and downs, fell by 6,250 to 221,000.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U.S. layoffs in a given week.
In response to weakening employment data and receding consumer prices, the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate in September by a half a percentage point and by another quarter-point last week.
The central bank is shifting its focus from taming inflation toward supporting the job market in an attempt to pull off a rare “soft landing,” whereby it brings down inflation without igniting a recession.
The half-point rate cut in September was the Fed’s first rate cut in four years after a series of increases starting in 2022 that pushed the federal funds rate to a two-decade high of 5.3%.
Despite a slight uptick in October, inflation has retreated steadily the past two years, approaching the Fed’s 2% target and leading Chair Jerome Powell to declare recently that it was largely under control.
Two weeks ago, the government reported that an inflation gauge closely watched by the Fed fell to its lowest level in three-and-a-half years.
During the first four months of 2024, applications for jobless benefits averaged just 213,000 a week before rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, supporting the notion that high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot U.S. job market.
In October, the U.S. economy produced a meager 12,000 jobs, though economists pointed to recent strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls.
The Labor Department reported In August that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total was also considered evidence that the job market has been slowing steadily, compelling the Fed to start cutting interest rates.
Continuing claims, the total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits, fell to 1.87 million for the week of Nov. 2, in line with analysts' expectations.
A hiring sign is displayed at a retail store in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.
"The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement Thursday provided by his lawyers.
The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion said its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety.
The Infowars website appeared to be down Thursday morning. Jones was angry and defiant on his live broadcast before announcing that his show was being shut down and signing off. Jones vowed to challenge the sale and auction process in court and said he would resume his broadcasts from a new studio using websites and social media accounts he said were already set up.
“The journey has just begun. Thank you,” Jones concluded.
The Onion, a Chicago-based satirical site that manages to persuade people to believe the absurd, confirmed the sale in a column on its website.
“No price would be too high for such a cornucopia of malleable assets and minds,” said the satirical post. “And yet, in a stroke of good fortune, a formidable special interest group has outwitted the hapless owner of InfoWars (a forgettable man with an already-forgotten name) and forced him to sell it at a steep bargain: less than one trillion dollars.”
The Onion bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers. Recent headlines have included, "Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings,” “Oklahoma Law Requires Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Every Womb” and “Man Forgetting Difference Between Meteoroid, Meteorite Struggles To Describe What Just Killed His Dog.”
The publication consulted on the bidding with some of the Sandy Hook families that sued Jones for defamation and emotional distress in lawsuits in Connecticut and Texas, lawyers for the families said.
“Our clients knew that true accountability meant an end to Infowars and an end to Jones’ ability to spread lies, pain and fear at scale,” said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families.
Everytown for Gun Safety said it will use the Infowars platforms to raise awareness about gun violence.
Sandy Hook families sued Jones and his company for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control.
Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.
Before he signed off Thursday, Jones repeatedly told listeners that the bankruptcy trustee and others were in the building and threatening to shut down the show at any moment.
Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars.
Jones had told listeners that if his supporters won the bidding, he could stay on the Infowars platforms. The bankruptcy trustee named First United American Companies, a company affiliated with one of Jones’ product-selling sites, as the “backup bid,” in case The Onion purchase falls through.
Global Tetrahedron, LLC, owner of The Onion, is displayed on the entrance screen to the office building that is headquarters to the satirical publication, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024 in Chicago. The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones'Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)
This undated photo provided by ThreeSixty Asset Advisors shows the Infowars set. (ThreeSixty Asset Advisors via AP)
A copy of the satirical outlet The Onion is seen Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Jill Bleed)
FILE - Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
