More Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits than the week before, a possible sign that trade disputes and slowing global growth are starting to affect the domestic economy.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., were a seasonally adjusted 227,000 in the week ended June 22, up 10,000 from the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected 219,000 new claims last week.
Jobless claims can be volatile from week to week. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, increased 2,250 to 221,250.
Thursday’s report also showed the number of claims workers made for longer than a week increasing 22,000 in the week ended June 15 to 1,688,000. The figure, also known as continuing claims, is reported with a one-week lag.
