Washington (Reuters) – The number of Americans submitting new requests for unemployment benefits increased slightly last week and could rise up as companies sail on President Donald Trump’s prices on imports.
The initial complaints for state unemployment benefits increased by 4,000 to 223,000 seasonally adjusted for the closed week on April 5, the Labor Department announced on Thursday. Economists interviewed by Reuters had planned 223,000 complaints for the last week.
The Trump administration’s pricing campaign has seriously eroded the feeling of business and consumers, which could weigh on investment, expenses and demand for labor.
The economy added 228,000 jobs in March while the unemployment rate increased to 4.2% against 4.1% in February.
Trump said on Wednesday that he had interrupted targeted tariffs on business partners for 90 days, less than 24 hours after new tasks started and plunged the financial markets into troubles.
But Trump reported the functions on Chinese goods at 125%, against 104% after Beijing retaliated with a price of 84% on American products. The European Union interrupted its first countermeasures against American prices, although the block was not mentioned in Trump’s declaration.
A general right of 10% on almost all American imports remains in place. Trump’s prices, which he considers as a tool to increase income to compensate for his promised tax reductions and to relaunch a long -standing American industrial base, have increased the chances of a recession in the next 12 months.
There was still no sign that mass fire of workers in the federal government have an impact on the labor market in the midst of current legal battles.
Although the overall layoffs remained historically low, the hiring was lukewarm, which led to those who lose their jobs in the process of long unemployment spells.
The number of people benefiting from services after a first week of aid, an indirect indicator of hiring, fell from 43,000 to a 1.850 million seasonally adjusted during the week ending on March 29, according to the complaint report.
(Report by Lucia Mutikani; edition by Chizu Nomiyama)
