Americans filing for jobless benefits at highest level in eight months
By MATT OTT AP Business Writer WASHINGTON AP Filings for U S unemployment benefits rose to their highest level in eight months last week but remain historically low despite growing uncertainty about how tariffs could impact the broader financial system Related Articles Athletic country club leases prime spot in Santana Row Amazon AI tech crafted in South Bay could speed same-day deliveries Bay Area tech workers endure grim as big companies reveal layoffs San Jose housing towers gain new owner through speedy foreclosure US and Europe contract negotiators say progress but no breakthroughs on tariff talks in Paris New applications for jobless benefits rose by to for the week ending May the Labor Department announced Thursday That s the the majority since early October Analysts had forecast new applications Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U S layoffs and have mostly bounced around a historically healthy range between and since COVID- throttled the financial system five years ago wiping out millions of jobs In reporting their latest earnings a large number of companies have either lowered their sales and profit expectations for or not issued guidance at all often citing President Donald Trump s dizzying rollout of tariff announcements Though Trump has paused or dialed down several of his tariff threats concerns remain that a tariff-induced global economic slowdown could upend what s been a robust U S labor sphere In early May the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate at for the third straight meeting after cutting it three times at the end of last year Fed chair Jerome Powell explained the likely for both higher unemployment and inflation are elevated an extraordinary combination that complicates the central bank s dual mandate of controlling prices and keeping unemployment low Powell declared that tariffs have dampened consumer and business sentiment Earlier this week the cabinet announced that U S job openings rose unexpectedly in April but other information suggested that Americans are less optimistic about the labor arena Tuesday s assessment established that the number of Americans quitting their jobs a sign of confidence in their prospects fell while layoffs ticked higher And in another sign the job sphere has cooled from the hiring boom of - the Labor Department communicated one job every unemployed person As not long ago as December there were two vacancies for every jobless American The Labor Department s more comprehensive monthly employment assessment comes out Friday with analysts expecting that U S employers added a slim jobs in May down from in April The governing body has estimated that the U S market shrank at a annual pace in the first quarter of a slight upgrade from its first estimate Progress was slowed by a surge in imports as companies in the U S tried to bring in foreign goods before Trump s massive tariffs went into effect Trump is attempting to reshape the global financial market by dramatically increasing import taxes to rejuvenate the U S manufacturing sector The president has also tried to drastically downsize the federal executive workforce but several of those cuts are being challenged in the courts and Congress In a regulatory filing early Thursday the packaged consumer goods company Procter Gamble stated it expected to cut jobs about of its nonmanufacturing workforce as part of a two-year restructuring plan Other companies that have broadcasted job cuts this year include Workday Dow CNN Starbucks Southwest Airlines Microsoft and Facebook parent company Meta The four-week average of jobless states which evens out several of the week-to-week gyrations during more volatile stretches rose by to the largest part since late October The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of May inched down by to million
