The number of Americans filing for jobless aid rose last week but remains historically low despite the economic uncertainty caused by the war in Iran.
U.S. applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 9 rose by 12,000 to 211,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That is slightly more than the 207,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.
Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week gyrations, inched up by 750 to 203,750.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending May 2 jumped by 24,000 to 1.78 million, in line with analyst forecasts.
Despite the increase, the labor market remains resilient, with claims still near historic lows. However, the ongoing conflict in Iran continues to cloud the economic outlook, as businesses and policymakers monitor potential disruptions to global trade and energy markets.
