If they’re concerned about the confusion surrounding U.S. trade policy, business leaders aren’t showing it much yet.
According to statistics released by the Labor Department Thursday, first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell slightly to 227,000 for the week ending May 17. That’s drop of 2,000 and left the total close to the 230,000 new applications analysts had forecast.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits have stayed in a range between 200,000 and 250,000 since Covid hit the U.S. five years ago.
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate at 4.3% for the third straight meeting after cutting it three times at the end of last year.
Fed chair Jerome Powell has said the potential for both higher unemployment and inflation are elevated, an unusual combination that complicates the central bank’s dual mandate of controlling prices and keeping unemployment low.
Powell said tariffs have dampened consumer and business sentiment and the government recently reported that the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3% annual pace in the first quarter of 2025. Growth was slowed by a surge in imports as companies in the U.S. tried to bring in foreign goods before tariffs went into effect.
