Blitz Bureau
THE number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits rose by the most in about three months last week and the number of people collecting unemployment relief in the prior week climbed to the highest level in nearly four years, signaling recent labor market softness continued into August.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 11,000 – the largest increase since late May – to a seasonally adjusted 235,000 for the week ended August 16, the Labor Department said on August 21. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week.
The data covered the survey week for the August nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and while it does not yet suggest large-scale layoffs are afoot, it nonetheless points to another month of sub-par job growth. The labor market has split into low firings and tepid hiring as businesses navigate President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policy, which has raised the nation’s average import duty to its highest level in a century.
Job growth has averaged 35,000 jobs per month over the last three months, the government reported in early August. Domestic demand grew in the second quarter at its slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2022. The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, rose 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.972 million, the highest level since November 2021, during the week ending August 9, the claims report showed.
