More Americans apply for jobless benefits, but layoffs are not rising significantly

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The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits rose last week, but remains at healthy levels despite the Federal Reserve’s attempt to cool the labor market by raising interest rates

The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits rose last week, but remains at healthy levels despite the Federal Reserve's attempt to cool the labor market by raising interest rates.

U.S. applications for jobless claims rose by 12,000 to 248,000 for the week ending July 1, from 236,000 previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,500 by 253,250.

Jobless claim applications are seen as a proxy for the number of layoffs in a given week.

For three weeks in late May and early June, jobless claims had appeared to reach a sustained, higher level, above 260,000. Even so, that increase may not have been enough for Fed officials to pivot from raising its main rate at its next meeting.

The U.S. economy has added jobs at a furious pace since more than 20 million jobs vanished when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. Americans have enjoyed unusual job security as companies have been reluctant to shed staff in a worker-friendly labor environment.

U.S. employers added a better-than-expected 339,000 jobs in May, surprising economists and painting a mostly encouraging picture of the labor market, even though the unemployment rose to a still-healthy 3.7%. Fed officials have said that the unemployment rate needs to rise well past 4% to bring inflation down.

The June jobs report, with a far more expansive set of labor data for the Fed to consider, is due out Friday. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect the economy added