the numbers the number of americans who applied for unemployment benefits in early march jumped to a 10week high of 211000 perhaps a sign that a recent spate of major corporate layoffs are starting to cool off the us labor market new applications rose 21000 from 190000 in the prior week the government said thursday it’s the first time in eight weeks that claims have topped the 200000 mark the number of people applying for jobless benefits is one of the best barometers of whether the economy is getting better or worse new unemployment applications still remain near historically low levels however economists polled by the wall street journal had forecast that new claims would total 195000 in the seven days ending march 3 the figures are seasonally adjusted big picture jobless claims are one of the first indicators to emit danger signals when the us is headed toward recession so far jobless claims remain remarkably low and the economy is still adding plenty of jobs economists predict the us gained 225000 new jobs in february economists expect layoffs to increase later in the year however as higher interest rates slow the economy and reduce demand for workers already a number of large companies especially in tech media and finance have announced job cuts market reaction the dow jones industrial average djia and sp 500 spx were set to open lower in thursday trades