WASHINGTON — Americans seeking unemployment benefits filed slightly fewer applications last week, with layoffs continuing to hold at historically low levels across the country.
According to a Thursday report from the Labor Department, the number of people filing for jobless aid during the week ending June 27 dropped by 1,000, landing at 215,000. That figure came in below the 225,000 new filings that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had anticipated.
Weekly unemployment filings are widely viewed as a close approximation of layoff activity nationwide and serve as a near real-time snapshot of how the job market is holding up.
In addition to the weekly claims data, the government also released its broader June jobs report on Thursday — one day ahead of its usual schedule because of the upcoming July 4 holiday.
That report painted a more cautious picture of the labor market. U.S. employers added just 57,000 jobs in June, which is less than half of what was gained the month before, suggesting businesses are continuing to hold back on hiring. The national unemployment rate declined to 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though that improvement is largely because many people who were out of work stopped searching for jobs and were therefore no longer counted among the unemployed.
June’s modest job gains follow a relatively strong three-month stretch of hiring, which had helped ease fears that the war in Iran would further destabilize an already fragile labor market.
Weekly unemployment filings have generally stayed within a range of 200,000 to 250,000 since the economy recovered from the pandemic recession. However, hiring has been gradually slowing for about two years, with the pace tapering further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his administration’s reduction of the federal workforce, and the ongoing effects of elevated interest rates that were put in place to fight inflation.
Among the major companies that have recently announced job cuts are Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks, and Walmart.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims — a measure that smooths out week-to-week fluctuations — fell by 2,500 to 222,000, according to Thursday’s report.
Meanwhile, the total number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits for the week ending June 20 rose by 2,000 to 1.81 million, which also remains a historically low number.
