US jobless benefit applications rise modestly as labor market remains largely unfazed by trade war

By MATT OTT Associated Press Business Writer Slightly more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week but the labor territory remains broadly healthy despite an ongoing business war Jobless claim filings inched up by to for the week ending April the Labor Department mentioned Thursday That s less than the new applications analysts forecast Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs and have mostly ping-ponged between and for the past sparse years Related Articles Former Facebook executive tells Senate committee company undermined US national safeguard with China US Postal Facility seeks to hike cost of a first-class stamp to cents Wall Street s euphoria sends US stocks to historic gains after Trump pauses most of of his tariffs IRS acting commissioner is resigning after deal to share immigrants tax information with ICE US expected a big excursion year but overseas visitors angered by Trump are heading elsewhere Even though President Donald Trump put a -day pause on the bulk of his widespread tariff hikes Wednesday concerns remain about a global economic slowdown that could upend what has been an incredibly resilient labor area Like his pledge to institute tariffs Trump s promise to drastically downsize the federal executive workforce is fully in motion It s not clear when the job cuts ordered by the Department of Cabinet Efficiency or DOGE spearheaded by Elon Musk will surface in the weekly layoffs facts Federal agencies that have either disclosed layoffs or are planning cuts include the Department of Wellbeing and Human Services IRS Small Business Administration Veterans Affairs and Department of Schooling Despite showing selected signs of weakening during the past year the labor territory remains healthy with plentiful jobs and relatively limited layoffs Last week the leadership disclosed that U S employers added a surprisingly strong jobs in March and while the unemployment rate inched up to that s a healthy figure by historical standards Several high-profile companies have revealed job cuts already this year including Workday Dow CNN Starbucks Southwest Airlines and Facebook parent company Meta The four-week average of applications which aims to smooth out various of the week-to-week swings was unchanged at The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March fell by to million