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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.
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.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and have mostly bounced around a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 ravaged the economy and wiped out millions of jobs five years ago.
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.
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