WASHINGTON (AP) — Applications for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in more than three years two weeks ago, potentially complicating the Federal Reserve’s decision this week on interest rates.

The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits for the week ending Nov. 29 fell to 191,000 from the previous week’s 218,000, according to the Labor Department.

That’s the lowest level since Sept. 24, 2022, when claims came in at 189,000. Analysts surveyed by the data provider FactSet had forecast initial claims of 221,000.

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, said that unemployment benefit filings are often distorted by the Thanksgiving holiday, which can cause some people who may have lost jobs to delay filing claims.

Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

The job cuts announced recently by large companies such as UPS, General Motors, Amazon and Verizon typically take weeks or months to fully implement and may not be reflected in the latest data.

For now, the job market appears stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job.

Last week, private payroll data firm ADP estimated job losses of 32,000 in November. The weak report likely bolstered expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate this week, analysts said.

It’s not clear how much weight this week’s layoff figures will carry with the Fed as the numbers can be volatile and prone to revisions.

Complicating the Fed’s upcoming decision is inflation, which remains above the central bank’s 2 percent target. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation will also be factored into its rate call.

Three weeks ago, the government said that hiring picked up a bit in September, when employers added 119,000 new jobs. That mixed report, which also showed employers had shed jobs in August, was delayed due to the federal government shutdown. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent, its highest level in four years, as more Americans returned to the labor market in search of work though they did not all immediately find jobs.

November’s comprehensive jobs data has been delayed for release until later this month, after the Fed’s meeting, also due to the government shutdown.

The government also recently reported that retail sales slowed in September after three months of healthy increases.

Consumer confidence has declined to its second-lowest level in five years, while wholesale inflation eased a bit.

The data suggests that both the economy and inflation are slowing, which has boosted financial markets’ expectations that the Federal Reserve will reduce its key interest rate at its meeting this week.

If the Fed does reduce its benchmark rate, it would be the third cut of the year as it attempts to support a job market that has been slowing for months.

The unemployment report from Labor also showed that the four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 9,500 to 214,750.