Unemployment benefit applications down

Promising statistics and reports about the job market being on the rise is not something you typically hear every day. But according to the Labor Department, just last week fewer people sought unemployment benefits and the number of applications for weekly unemployment fell to 281,000 meaning fewer people are being laid off.

However, the labor participation rate remains low. Just 62.6% percent of American adults are either working or looking for work. Salisbury University Professor Dr. Leonard Arvi says more adults are choosing to educate themselves rather than work, and over the years, the percentage of women in the workplace has declined. Still, Dr. Arvi says the labor market is healthy, especially compared to the rest of the world.

Dr. Arvi tells 47 ABC, “When you see the jobless applications are down it means less people are applying for jobless benefits which tells us there is a healthy labor market. So going forward I would say the U.S. labor market is in a pretty good position compared to the rest of the world.”

Speaking of the rest of the world, while the Greek Economic crisis is not directly affecting the U.S., Dr. Arvi points to China as a looming potential problem. Nearly all the Fortune 500 companies have significant sales in China, the stock market there recently lost nearly 30% of its value, but the country’s other economic markers appear to be stable. Dr. Arvi says if the Chinese economy slows, in turn, it will slow sales of U.S. firms and reduce profits.