US jobless claims fall to 215,000 by July 4 as layoffs remain at historic low | Today’s news
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week as U.S. jobless numbers remain at historic lows.
US jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 215,000 in the week ending July 4, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Analysts polled by data firm FactSet predict 220,000 new apps.
Weekly jobless claims are considered an indicator of layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the state of the US labor market.
In its more comprehensive June jobs report last week, the government said employers pulled back from June’s hiring, adding just 57,000 jobs. That’s less than half of the previous month’s total and a sign that companies remain cautious. The unemployment rate fell to 4.2% from 4.3% in May, although the drop is mainly due to many unemployed people stopping looking for work and no longer being counted as unemployed.
June’s tepid hiring comes after a relative increase in jobs in the previous three months, contradicting concerns that the war in Iran could trip up an already shaky labor market.
Weekly jobless claims have mostly held steady between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. But hiring began to slow about two years ago and will taper further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates that were supposed to control inflation.
Companies that have recently cut their workforce include Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks and Walmart.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it would cut 4,800 jobs, or about 2.1% of its global workforce, including a large number of workers in its Xbox video game business.
Thursday’s jobless data showed the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week swings, fell by 3,750 to 218,750.
The total number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits in the previous week ending June 27 rose by 8,000 to 1.81 million, also a historically healthy number.
