|
Jobless claims slipped to 203,000 last week from a revised
207,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week
ups and downs, ticked up slightly to 205,500.
Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and
economists watch them because they can provide early clues of
where the job market is headed. For the past year, claims have
mostly been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to
230,000 a week.
The U.S. economy and job market have proved resilient in the
face of high gasoline prices caused by the fighting with Iran.
The U.S. unemployment rate is low at 4.1%. That is partly
because President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the
ongoing retirement of baby boomers mean that fewer people are
competing for jobs: More than 1.3 million people have dropped
out of the U.S. labor force over the past year.
Companies, scarred by the surprise worker shortages that
followed the end of COVID-19 lockdowns, are reluctant to let go
of staff. But they aren’t hiring much either. So times are tough
for Americans seeking to break into the job market and those who
lost their jobs and are looking for new work. Economists
describe a “no hire, no fire″ job market.
So far this year, employers — companies, nonprofits and
government agencies — have added an average 61,000 jobs a month.
That is an improvement on the 9,700 they averaged last year —
the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002 — when the
lingering effects of high interest rates and Trump’s erratic
trade policies discouraged companies from hiring.
When the Labor Department puts out the August jobs report next
week, it’s expected to show that employers added another 65,000
jobs, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm
FactSet.
Hiring this year remains well below the 166,000 monthly jobs
created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a
month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed
pandemic lockdowns.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
|
|
