The number of Americans filing unemployment claims last week fell slightly as businesses continue to retain employees despite growing economic uncertainty over U.S. trade policy, the Associated Press reports.
Applications for jobless benefits fell by 2,000 to 227,000 for the week ending May 17, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s pretty close to the 230,000 new applications analysts forecast.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week ups and downs during more volatile stretches, rose by 1,000 to 231,500. The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of May 10 climbed by 36,000 to 1.9 million.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly remained in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even though President Donald Trump has paused or dialed down many of his tariff threats, concerns remain about a global economic slowdown that could upend the U.S. labor market, which has been a pillar of the American economy for years.
