The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose slightly last week.
U.S. jobless claims filings rose by 2,000 to 223,000 for the week ending March 15, according to statistics released Thursday by the Labor Department. That’s just less than the 224,000 new applications analysts forecast, according to a report from The Associated Press.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits have stayed mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.
The four-week average also inched up, climbing by 750 to 227,000.
It’s not clear when job cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” will show up in the weekly layoffs report, though the Labor Department’s February jobs report showed that the federal government shed 10,000 jobs, the most since June 2022.
Economists don’t expect the federal workforce layoffs to have much of an impact until the March jobs report, the AP reported.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March 8 rose by 33,000 to 1.89 million.
