Fewer Americans Applying for Unemployment Benefits

High interest rates don’t seem to be slowing the U.S. job market, if the fact the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week is any indication.

Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 231,000 for the week of Aug. 24, according to statistics released by the Labor Department Thursday. That’s just below the 232,000 new filings analysts were expecting.

The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 4,750 to 231,500.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits, despite the fact they’ve risen slightly the last few months, remain low by historic standards.

From January through May, claims averaged 213,000 a week, but they started rising in May, hitting 250,000 in late July.

Employers added just 114,000 jobs in July, well below the January-June monthly average of nearly 218,000. The unemployment rate rose for the fourth straight month in July, though it remains low at 4.3%.

Last week, the Labor Department also reported that the U.S. economy added more than 800,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March 2024 than were originally reported.

Inflation has fallen steadily and, at 2.9%, hovers just above the Fed’s 2% target. That led Fed Chair Jerome Powell to declare last week that it was largely under control. Most economists expect the Fed to begin cutting rates at its next meeting in September.

The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits rose by 13,000 to 1.87 million for the week of Aug. 17.