Page 11 - AHATA

A2 u.s. news
Friday 5 december 2025
US filings for jobless benefits fall to 191,000,

lowest since September of 2022

By MATT OTT It’s not clear how much sales slowed in September
AP Business Writer weight this week’s layoff fig- after three months of healthy
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. ap- ures will carry with the Fed as increases.
plications for unemployment the numbers can be volatile Consumer confidence has
benefits fell to their lowest and prone to revisions. plunged to its second-low-
level in more than three years Complicating the Fed’s up- est level in five years, while
during Thanksgiving week, coming decision is inflation, wholesale inflation eased a
potentially complicating the which remains above the bit.
Federal Reserve’s upcoming central bank’s 2% target. The The data suggests that both
decision on interest rates. Fed’s preferred measure of the economy and infla-
The number of Americans inflation will be released in a tion are slowing, which has
applying for jobless benefits government report on Friday boosted financial markets’
for the week ending Nov. 29 and will also be factored into expectations that the Fed-
fell to 191,000 from the previ- its rate call on Wednesday. eral Reserve will reduce its
ous week’s 218,000, the La- Two weeks ago, the govern- key interest rate at its meet-
bor Department reported "Help Wanted" sign is displayed at a dry cleaner in Rolling ment said that hiring picked ing next week. If the Fed
Thursday. That’s the lowest Meadows, Ill., Thursday, May 15, 2025. up a bit in September, when does reduce its benchmark
level since September 24, Associated Press. employers added 119,000 rate next week, it would be
2022, when claims came in high-profile announcements. data. new jobs. That mixed report, the third cut of the year as
at 189,000. Analysts surveyed Hiring is also sluggish, which For now, the U.S. job market which also showed employ- it attempts to support a job
by the data provider FactSet makes finding a job for those appears stuck in a “low-hire, ers had shed jobs in August, market that has been slow-
had forecast initial claims of out of work challenging. low-fire” state that has kept was delayed due to the ing for months.
221,000. Applications for unemploy- the unemployment rate his- government shutdown. The Thursday's report from Labor
Kathy Bostjancic, chief ment aid are viewed as a torically low. unemployment rate ticked also showed that the four-
economist at Nationwide, proxy for layoffs and are On Wednesday, private pay- up to 4.4%, its highest level week average of claims,
said that unemployment close to a real-time indicator roll data firm ADP estimated in four years. which evens out some of
benefit filings are often dis- of the health of the job mar- U.S. job losses of 32,000 in No- November’s comprehensive the week-to-week volatility,
torted by the Thanksgiving ket. The job cuts announced vember. jobs data has been delayed fell by 9,500 to 214,750.
holiday, which can cause recently by large companies The surprisingly weak report for release until later this The total number of Ameri-
some people who may have such as UPS, General Motors, may be discouraging for month, after the Fed’s meet- cans filing for jobless benefits
lost jobs to delay filing claims. Amazon and Verizon typi- people looking for jobs, but ing, also due to the govern- for the previous week ending
Still, the low claims figure also cally take weeks or months it bolstered expectations that ment shutdown. Nov. 22 dipped by 4,000 to
suggests that overall layoffs to fully implement and may the Fed will cut its main inter- The government also re- 1.94 million, the government
remain muted, despite the not be reflected in Thursday’s est rate next week. cently reported that retail said..q

Hegseth put troops at risk by sharing sensitive plans on personal

phone, Pentagon watchdog finds

By DAVID KLEPPER, KON- times of manned U.S. aircraft that a follow-up strike on
STANTIN TOROPIN and BEN over hostile territory about an alleged drug-smuggling
FINLEY two hours to four hours be- boat in the Caribbean Sea
Associated Press fore those strikes — “created in September killed survivors
WASHINGTON (AP) — De- a risk to operational security after Hegseth issued a verbal
fense Secretary Pete Hegs- that could have resulted in order to “kill everybody.”
eth put U.S. troops at risk by failed U.S. mission objectives Hegseth wrote on social
sharing sensitive plans about and potential harm to U.S. pi- media about the inspector
an upcoming military strike lots.” “If this information had general's report: "No classi-
in Yemen on his personal fallen into the hands of U.S. fied information. Total exon-
phone, according to a Pen- adversaries, Houthi forces eration. Case closed. Houthis
tagon inspector general's re- might have been able to bombed into submission."
port made public Thursday counter U.S. forces or repo- He had declined to be inter-
that criticized the use of un- sition personnel and assets to viewed for the review. In a
approved messaging apps avoid planned U.S. strikes,” one-page statement to the
and devices across the De- the report said. inspector general, Hegseth
fense Department. Hegseth’s use of the app said he had the authority to
Hegseth had the authority came to light when a journal- declassify the information he Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Cabinet
meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington.
to declassify the material ist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The was sharing on Signal and Associated Press.
he shared with others in a Atlantic, was inadvertently that there “was nothing clas-
Signal chat, the watchdog added to a Signal text chain sified in this text.” work used by the military. the information to the Signal
found. But the release of by then-national security ad- “There were no locations or The information he shared chats before the military jets
details about the strike on viser Mike Waltz. targets identified,” he wrote. on Signal was limited to the had reached their targets
Houthi militants violated in- The report's nuanced findings “There were no details that “overt actions” of U.S. forc- potentially put those pilots’
ternal Pentagon rules about — that Hegseth's actions put would endanger our troops es, which he said “would be lives at risk.
handling sensitive informa- troops at risk but that he had or the mission.” readily apparent to any ob- Lawmakers also noted that
tion that could put service the right to declassify the Hegseth's letter said he was server in the area.” if lower-ranking members of
members or their missions in material — are not likely to only sharing “an unclassified But the revelations drew the military had acted simi-
danger. relieve the pressure on the summary” of operations and intense scrutiny, with Dem- larly, they would have been
The report noted that the former Fox News Channel that the full details of what ocratic lawmakers and a fired or severely disciplined
information that Hegseth host. He also is facing scrutiny was happening were shared small number of Republicans for failing to maintain opera-
sent — the quantity and strike on Capitol Hill over a report separately on a secure net- saying Hegseth's posting of tional security.q