The number of U.S. workers filing for unemployment benefits was up last week, but only a little.
According to statistics released by the Labor Department, jobless claims for the week ending Aug. 2 rose to 226,000. That’s an increase of 7,000 from the week before and slightly more than the 219,000 new applications economists had expected.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits have mostly remained 200,000 and 250,000 since Covid-19 hit the U.S. in March 2020.
It was just the second time in eight weeks that jobless benefit applications rose.
Last week, the government reported that U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well short of the 115,000 expected. Revisions to the May and June jobs figures shaved 258,000 jobs off previous estimates and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%, The Associated Press reported.
“The ‘no hire/no fire’ theme in the labor market remains firmly intact,” analysts for Jeffries wrote in a note to clients, according to the AP..
U.S. markets recoiled at last week’s jobs report, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling more than 600 points on Friday.
The Labor Department also reported last week that employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies in June, down from 7.7 million in May. The number of people quitting their jobs – a sign of confidence in finding a better job – fell in June to the lowest level since December. Hiring also fell from May, according to the AP report.
Thursday’s report also showed that the four-week average of claims fell by 500 to 220,750, and that the total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of July 26 jumped by 38,000 to 1.97 million, the highest level since November of 2021.
