The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits last week rises to highest level in eight months

By MATT OTT Associated Press Business Writer WASHINGTON AP Filings for U S unemployment benefits rose to their highest level in eight months last week but remain historically low despite growing uncertainty about how tariffs could impact the broader commercial sector New applications for jobless benefits rose by to for the week ending May the Labor Department noted Thursday That s the the greater part since early October Analysts had forecast new applications Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of U S layoffs and have mostly bounced around a historically healthy range between and since COVID- throttled the commercial sector five years ago wiping out millions of jobs Related Articles Pampers maker Procter Gamble to cut up to jobs under tariff consumer uncertainty pressure This day in History June Robert F Kennedy assassinated Trump announces movement ban and restrictions on countries set to go into effect Monday Jury deliberations near in Weinstein sex crimes retrial Women s sports bar The Sports Bra set to expand to four new cities In reporting their latest earnings numerous companies have either lowered their sales and profit expectations for or not issued guidance at all often citing President Donald Trump s dizzying rollout of tariff announcements Though Trump has paused or dialed down a great number of of his tariff threats concerns remain that a tariff-induced global economic slowdown could upend what s been a robust U S labor territory In early May the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate at for the third straight meeting after cutting it three times at the end of last year Fed chair Jerome Powell commented the prospective for both higher unemployment and inflation are elevated an exceptional combination that complicates the central bank s dual mandate of controlling prices and keeping unemployment low Powell disclosed that tariffs have dampened consumer and business sentiment Earlier this week the executive shared that U S job openings rose unexpectedly in April but other input suggested that Americans are less optimistic about the labor field Tuesday s record established that the number of Americans quitting their jobs a sign of confidence in their prospects fell while layoffs ticked higher And in another sign the job region has cooled from the hiring boom of - the Labor Department revealed one job every unemployed person As in the past few days as December there were two vacancies for every jobless American The Labor Department s more comprehensive monthly employment document comes out Friday with analysts expecting that U S employers added a slim jobs in May down from in April The cabinet has estimated that the U S commercial sector shrank at a annual pace in the first quarter of a slight upgrade from its first estimate Expansion was slowed by a surge in imports as companies in the U S tried to bring in foreign goods before Trump s massive tariffs went into effect Trump is attempting to reshape the global business sector by dramatically increasing import taxes to rejuvenate the U S manufacturing sector The president has also tried to drastically downsize the federal administration workforce but several of those cuts are being challenged in the courts and Congress In a regulatory filing early Thursday the packaged consumer goods company Procter Gamble declared it expected to cut jobs about of its nonmanufacturing workforce as part of a two-year restructuring plan Other companies that have revealed job cuts this year include Workday Dow CNN Starbucks Southwest Airlines Microsoft and Facebook parent company Meta The four-week average of jobless declares which evens out specific of the week-to-week gyrations during more volatile stretches rose by to the greater part since late October The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of May inched down by to million