Few Americans file for jobless claims amid tight labor market
CBSN
The number of Americans filing for jobless aid ticked up last week but stayed at historically low levels, showing the labor market remains tight.
Some 202,000 people applied for first-time jobless aid in the week ending March 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's number, which was the lowest weekly figure since 1969.
In total, 1.3 million Americans were collecting jobless aid for the week ending March 19, the lowest number since December 1969.
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.