The number of individuals applying for unemployment benefits in the United States remained steady last week, indicating a strong labor market where companies are holding onto their employees. According to the Labor Department, new jobless claims decreased by 1,000 to 224,000 for the week ending March 22, which matched analysts’ expectations of 225,000 applications.

Weekly jobless benefit claims are viewed as an indicator of layoffs and have stayed within the range of 200,000 to 250,000 for a few years now. It is uncertain when the job reductions mandated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will impact the weekly layoff report, as reflected in the Labor Department’s February jobs report showing a loss of 10,000 federal government jobs, the highest since June 2022.

Economists anticipate that the federal workforce reductions will begin to show in the March jobs report to be released on April 4, following initiatives such as DOGE introduced by Elon Musk under the Trump administration to shrink the government workforce.

While there have been reports of slight weakening in the labor market over the past year, it is still robust, with numerous job opportunities and minimal layoffs. In February, U.S. employers added 151,000 jobs, and although the unemployment rate rose to 4.1%, it is considered a healthy rate historically.

Several major companies have already announced job cuts this year, such as Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, and Meta, the parent company of Facebook. The weekly unemployment claims report issued by the government includes a four-week average of applications to smooth out weekly fluctuations, which declined by 4,750 to 224,000.

For the week ending March 15, the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits decreased by 25,000 to 1.86 million.