US applications for jobless benefits inch up last week to a still-low 200,000

The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits inched up last week but U.S. layoffs remain historically low despite signs of a softening labor market.

U.S. filings for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 17 rose by 1,000 to 200,000, up from 199,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 207,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.

Applications for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The four-week average of jobless claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,750 to 201,500.

The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan. 10 declined by 26,000 to 1.85 million, the government said.