Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits last week, but applications remain slightly elevated

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The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell last week but remain at slightly elevated though not troubling levels

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell last week but remain at slightly elevated though not troubling levels.

Jobless claims for the week of Aug. 3 fell by 17,000 to 233,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

That's fewer than the 240,000 analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting.

Weekly unemployment claims are widely considered representative of layoffs, and though they have trended higher recently, they remain at historically healthy levels.

Continuing claims, which represent the total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits, rose by 6,000 for the week of July 27 to 1.88 million. That’s the most in more than three years, but also not particularly worrisome, analysts say.

Thursday’s report was the first snapshot of the U.S. labor market since last week’s deeply disappointing jobs data for July sent financial markets spiraling on fears that the economy might be edging toward a recession. Some analysts had suggested that the Federal Reserve might respond by accelerating its timetable for cutting interest rates or cut rates more deeply than previously envisioned.

In recent days, though, most economists have cautioned that the July jobs report did not portend a recession. They noted that by most measures, the economy, while slowing, remains resilient.

Last week, many economists and traders had grown concerned after the government reported a much lower-than-expected job gain for July and the unemployment rate reached 4.3%, its highest point since October 2021, when the economy was still recovering from the pandemic recession. The fact that