The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose by the most in about three months last week, an early sign that layoffs may be gathering pace and adding to signs that the labor market is weakening.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 235,000 for the week ended Aug. 16, the biggest gain since late May, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 225,000 claims for the week.
The labor market is currently divided by low layoffs but slow hiring, as businesses grapple with President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies, which have raised the nation’s average import tariff to its highest level in a century.
The government reported in early August that job gains averaged just 35,000 a month over the past three months. Meanwhile, domestic demand grew at its slowest pace since the fourth quarter of 2022.
The number of people receiving benefits after the first week of claims, a proxy measure of hiring, rose by 30,000 to 1.972 million (seasonally adjusted) for the week ended Aug. 9, the highest since November 2021, the claims report showed.
The continued gains in this category are in line with consumers’ perceptions that finding a job is becoming more difficult. Economists said the trend was consistent with the unemployment rate rising to 4.3% in August from 4.2% in July.
