The United States applications for unemployment benefits jumped at its highest level in two months, but the dismissals remain in a historically healthy range despite the increase in the fears of an economic deceleration induced by the rate.
The unemployment claim requests rose from 18,000 to 241,000 for the week that ended on April 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is more than the 225,000 new application analysts and as many since the end of February.
Weekly applications for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mainly maintained in a healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 in recent years.
The total number of Americans who received unemployment benefits for the week of April 19 increased to 1.92 million, the largest amount since November 2021.
Although President Donald Trump has arrested Or he backed away many of his tariff threats, there are concerns about a global economic slowdown that could fly what has been a historically resistant labor market.
According to the Department of Commerce, contraction It has already begun in the United States
Commerce reported Wednesday that the US economy was reduced at an annual rate of 0.3% from January to March, since Trump’s commercial wars interrupted businesses. The growth of the first quarter was slowed down an increase in imports, since companies in the United States tried to bring foreign goods before Trump Massive tax tariffs.
It was the first quarterly decrease in GDP in three years.
Like his promise to institute tariffs, Trump’s promise to drastically reduce the federal government’s workforce has held much of the first weeks of his presidency and is still in motion.
It is not clear when the employment cuts ordered by the Government Efficiency Department, or “Dux”, headed by Elon Musk, will appear in the weekly layoff data. However, the reductions of federal government personnel They are already feelingeven outside the Washington area, DC.
Federal agencies that have announced layoffs or are planning cuts include Department of Health and Human Services, Irs, Small Business Administration, Veterans issues and Department of Education.
Despite showing some signs of weakening during the past year, the labor market is still healthy with many work openings and relatively few dismissals.
Earlier this month, the government reported that US employers added a surprisingly strong 228,000 jobs In March. While the unemployment rate increased up to 4.2%, that remains a healthy figure according to historical standards.
The Labor Department issues its April job report on Friday.
Some high -profile companies have already announced employment cuts this year, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and the Metrizo Meta Matrix.
The Labor Department also reported on Thursday that the average of four weeks of applications, which softens part of the volatility from week to week, increased by 5,500 to 226,000.
