American applications for unemployed advantages have jumped at their highest level in two months, but the layoffs remain in a historically healthy range despite the growing fears of an economic slowdown induced by prices.
Requests for unemployment complaint jumped 18,000 to 241,000 for the week ending on April 26, the Labor Department announced on Thursday. It is more than the 225,000 new applications provided by analysts and the most since the end of February.
Weekly applications for unemployed services are considered an indirect indicator of layoffs and have mainly remained in a healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 in recent years.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of April 19 has climbed to 1.92 million since November 2021.
Even if President Donald Trump stopped or fell back on many of his pricing threats, concerns remain concerning a global economic slowdown which could upset what was a historically resilient labor market.
According to the trade department, the contraction has already started in the United States
Commerce reported on Wednesday that the US economy had decreased at an annual rate of 0.3% from January to March while Trump’s trade wars disrupted business. The growth of the first quarter was slowed down by an increase in imports while the United States companies were trying to bring foreign goods before Trump imposed massive rates.
It was the first quarterly drop in GDP in three years.
Like his commitment to establishing prices, Trump’s promise considerably reduce the workforce of the federal government has occupied a large part of the first weeks of its presidency and is still in motion.
It is not clear when the deletions of jobs commanded by the Ministry of Government Effectiveness – or “DOGE”, led by Elon Musk – will surface in the weekly data from layoffs. However, the federal government staff are already felt, even outside the Washington region, DC.
Federal agencies that have announced layoffs or planning discounts include the Ministry of Health and Social Services, IRS, Small Business Administration, Veterans and Ministry of Education.
Despite some signs of weakening in the past year, the job market remains healthy with many job offers and relatively few layoffs.
Earlier this month, the government said US employers added 228,000 surprisingly solid jobs in March. Although the unemployment rate increased to 4.2%, it is still a healthy figure according to historical standards.
Friday, the Labor Department published its employment report in April.
Some high -level companies have already announced job cuts this year, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Facebook Meta parent company.
The Labor Department also pointed out on Thursday that the average of four -week requests, which softens part of the volatility of the week per week, increased from 5,500 to 226,000.
