The American job market, which has been so strong for so long, may not be so strong right now.
A week after the U.S. added its lowest number of jobs – 175,000 – in six months, the rate of American workers applying for uemployment assistance rose to its highest total since August.
The number of unemployment claims rose to 231,000 in the week ending May 4, according to statistics released by the Labor Department Thursday. That’s 22,000 claims higher than the previous week and the most since the end of August.
The four-week average of claims also rose slightly, climbing by 4,750 to 215,000.
Weekly unemployment claims have remained at historically low levels since the pandemic cost Americans millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.
Last month, U.S. employers added just 175,000 jobs, the unemployment rate inched back up to 3.9% from 3.8% — it has remained below 4% for 27 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s – and the government reported its fewest job openings – 8.5 million — in three years.
A total of 1.79 million Americans were collecting unemployment benefits during the week ending April 27, up some 17,000 from the previous week.
