WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week despite heightened uncertainty about how President Donald Trump’s tariffs will impact the U.S. economy.
Jobless claim applications fell by 13,000 to 228,000 for the week ending May 3, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s in line with the 229,000 new applications analysts forecast.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mostly bounced around a healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 decimated the economy and wiped out millions of jobs.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week gyrations, inched up by 1,000 to 227,000.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of April 26 fell to 1.88 million, a decrease of 29,000.
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