Slightly fewer Americans applied for jobless claims last week

Slightly fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting a robust job market despite rising job cuts in some sectors of the economy that have cooled in recent months.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending June 25 ticked down to 231,000, a decline of 2,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Firsttime applications generally represent the number of layoffs.

The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 7,250 from the previous week, to 231,750.

The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending June 18 was 1,328,000, down 3,000 from the previous week. That figure has hovered near 50-year lows for months.

Much of the recent job security and wage gains that Americans have enjoyed recently have been gobbled up by inflation levels not seen in four decades.

Earlier in June, the Labor Department reported that consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from a year earlier. The Federal Reserve responded by raising its main borrowing rate — its main tool for fighting rising prices — by threequarters of a point. That increase is on top of a halfpoint increase in early May.

The government reported that U.S. employers added 390,000 jobs in May, extending a streak of solid hiring that has bolstered an economy under pressure. Though the job growth in May was healthy, it was the lowest monthly gain in a year and there have been signs that more layoffs could be coming, at least in some sectors.

Jobless claims applications the past few weeks, though still relatively low, have been the highest since the first weeks of 2022 as some highly visible companies have announced job cuts.