US Jobless Claims Show Emerging Cracks in a Strong Labor Market
- New seasonal adjustments boost initial claims for the year
- Level is still low, indicative of resilient labor demand
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Applications for US unemployment benefits last week signaled that the labor market still remains relatively strong, even though data revisions indicate some emerging signs of softening.
Initial unemployment claims were 228,000 in the week ended April 1, Labor Department data showed Thursday. For the week before that, the government revised the numbers up by 48,000 to 246,000, likely explaining why the latest reading exceeded almost all economists’ estimates. This report included updated seasonal factors going back to 2018.