Fewer Americans are filing for unemployment as the job market continues to shrug off rising interest rates.

WASHINGTON– Fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the job market continued to boom despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to calm it.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that unemployment claims for the week ending April 6 fell by 11,000 to 211,000 from 222,000 the previous week.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week fluctuations, fell by 250 to 214,250.

Weekly jobless claims are considered a proxy for the number of U.S. layoffs in a given week and a sign of where the job market is heading. They have remained at historically low levels since the pandemic wiped out millions of jobs in spring 2020.

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times starting in March 2022 in an effort to quell four-decade high inflation that took hold after the economy rebounded from the COVID-19 recession. 19 of 2020. Part of the Fed’s goal was to ease the labor market and curb wage growth, which it said contributed to persistently high inflation.

Many economists thought there was a chance that the rapid rise in rates would tip the country into recession, but jobs remained plentiful and the economy held up better than expected thanks to strong consumer spending.

In March, U.S. employers added a surprising 303,000 jobs, another example of the U.S. economy’s resilience in the face of high interest rates. The unemployment rate rose from 3.9% to 3.8% and has now remained below 4% for 26 consecutive months, the longest such streak since the 1960s.

Although layoffs remain low, companies have recently announced further job cuts, primarily in the technology and media sectors. Google parent company Alphabet, Apple, eBay, TikTok, Snap, Amazon, Cisco Systems and the Los Angeles Times all recently announced layoffs.

Outside of technology and media, UPS, Macy’s and Levi Strauss have also recently cut jobs.

A total of 1.82 million Americans received unemployment benefits during the week ended March 30, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week and the largest number since January.