Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 24 fell by 1,000 to 209,000 from the previous week’s number which was revised upward by 10,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. That, combined with the government’s own sluggish labor market data, has left Americans increasingly pessimistic about the economy. The 2025 numbers represent the smallest annual job gains since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department also showed that the four-week average of jobless claims, which balances out some of the week-to-week ups and downs, rose by 2,250 to 206,250.