The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased marginally last week, pointing to continued labor market resilience in early June.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 for the week ended June 6, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 219,000 claims for the latest week.
Claims tend to rise at the start of summer as some states allow non-teaching staff to file for unemployment benefits during the long school holidays. Seasonal factors, the model used by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data, do not always capture these moves.
The economy notched a third straight month of strong employment gains in May, the government reported last week. The unemployment rate remained at 4.3%, the third month in a row.
Some of the strength in job growth is likely from low layoffs. A National Federation of Independent Business survey this week showed its employment measure dropped in May for the third consecutive month, while the share of owners planning to create new jobs in the next three months fell to a six-year low.
Economists say hiring has been constrained by policy uncertainty, including import tariffs last year and now the U.S.-led war with Iran. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, increased 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.795 million during the week ended May 30, the claims report showed.
Out-of-work Americans are struggling to land new opportunities. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks and more jumped in May to the highest level since December 2021, the closely watched employment report showed last week. The median duration of unemployment increased to 11.6 weeks, the longest since November 2021, from 11.0 weeks in April.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
