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US Jobless Claims Inch Up, Labor Market Remains Stable

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, signaling a labor market that remains steady despite ongoing economic uncertainty. New data from the U.S. Department of Labor for the week ending March 21 shows initial jobless claims increased by 5,000 to 210,000. The four-week moving average was 210,500, a decrease of 250 from the previous week. At the same time, continuing claims fell to 1.82 million, the lowest level since May 2024. The figures suggest layoffs remain relatively low and employers are largely holding onto workers.  US Jobless Claims Inch Up, Labor Market Remains Stable – tEDmag

US Unemployment Hovers at Historically Low Levels

 The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dipped to 245,000 last week, hovering at historically low levels, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits the week of June 7 slid to 1.95 million. Weekly unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs and mostly have stayed within a healthy band of 200,000 to 250,000 since the economy recovered from a brief but painful COVID-19 recession in 2020, which temporarily wiped out millions of jobs. US Unemployment Hovers at Historically Low Levels – tEDmag

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind – The last time human beings headed moonward was on the Apollo 17 flight that launched Dec. 7, 1972—before any of the Artemis II crew members were born. Today’s crew will not land on the moon—they won’t even orbit the moon. But they will whip around the lunar far side, on a shakedown mission test-flying the Orion spacecraft. This is essential preparatory work for achieving NASA’s bigger lunar goals. Next year there will be another test flight in low Earth orbit during the flight of Artemis III, followed by up to two moon landings by Artemis IV and V in 2028, and annual landings thereafter. Unlike the Apollo program, Artemis aims not just for the so-called flags-and-footprints model of short, one- to three-day stays on the moon, but for a long-term presence at a long-term moon base in the south lunar pole, where deposits of ice can provide drinkable water, breathable oxygen, and oxygen-hydrogen rocket fuel. Very much like the Apollo program, Artemis finds itself in a closely watched moon race, not with the old Soviet Union this time, but with China, which has announced its intention to have astronauts on the moon by 2030. The U.S. is not going it alone this time, however. While Apollo was an entirely American enterprise, Artemis flies under the flag of 60 countries, signatories to the Artemis Accords, an international pact whose members vow to support the peaceful exploration of space and contribute money, modules, and astronauts to the Artemis cause. Artemis II Has Launched. Here’s Everything You Need to Know