U.S. applications for jobless benefits rose last week but remain at historically low levels despite efforts by the Federal Reserve to cool the economy and the job market in its fight against inflation.

Jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending March 25 rose by 7,000 to 198,000 from the

previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week fluctuations, rose by 2,000 to 198,250, remaining below the 200,000 threshold for the tenth straight week.

In its latest quarterly projections, the Federal Reserve predicts that the unemployment rate will rise from its current 3.6% to 4.5% by year’s end, a sizable increase historically associated with recessions.

File this one under: Must be nice.

Average Wall Street bonuses dropped sharply last year to $176,700 amid lagging profits and recession fears, New York state’s comptroller reported Thursday.

The bonuses for employees in New York City’s securities industry dropped 26% from 2021, when the average was a record $240,400, according to New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s annual estimate. DiNapoli noted that bonuses last year returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“Wall Street’s cash bonuses were expected to fall as several factors weighed on the securities’ industry profitability in 2022,” DiNapoli said in a prepared release.

The comptroller said Wall Street’s pretax profits fell 56% in 2022 due to a sharp decline in investment-banking fees driven by inflation, interest-rate hikes and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.