{"id":745781,"date":"2026-06-18T21:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/745781\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T21:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T21:05:18","slug":"u-s-unemployment-claims-fell-last-week-amid-low-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/745781\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. unemployment claims fell last week amid low layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Job seekers attend a small business summit and job fair hosted by the Chicago Department of Aviation in Chicago, Ill.Scott Olson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but remained at slightly higher levels, suggesting some moderation in the pace of job growth in June.<\/p>\n

Economists largely shrugged off the report from the Labor Department on Thursday, with some pointing out that the recent elevation in claims was likely due to seasonal distortions related to the end of the school year. They viewed the labour market as remaining stable enough for the Federal Reserve to focus on stamping out inflation, stoked by the Iran war. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday kept its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50 per cent-3.75 per cent range, but updated quarterly projections showed policymakers expected to raise borrowing costs this year amid growing concerns about inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t expect claims to trend consistently higher from here,\u201d said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. \u201cAnd despite the bounce off the recent lows, the level of initial claims is still consistent with a broad range of labour market indicators that show the job market has improved but isn\u2019t overheating. That will allow the Fed to keep policy on hold while it waits for inflation to come down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 226,000 for the week ended June 13, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 225,000 claims for the latest week. Claims had increased for three straight weeks, pushing to the upper end of their 190,000-230,000 range for this year.<\/p>\n

Last week, there were notable increases in unadjusted claims in Oregon and Minnesota, among the few states that allow non-teaching staff to file for unemployment benefits during the months-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.<\/p>\n

Claims in Pennsylvania rose 3,734 last week after surging 5,381 in the prior week, an increase that was attributed to layoffs in transportation and warehousing, administrative and support and waste management and remediation services industries as well as in accommodation and food services, healthcare and social assistance.<\/p>\n

The labour market is stable<\/p>\n

The labour market has regained momentum, posting three straight months of strong job gains, after wobbling in 2025. Lower layoffs have kept the unemployment rate at 4.3 per cent for three consecutive months.<\/p>\n

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh told reporters that members of the U.S. central bank\u2019s policy-setting committee \u201cthought that the labour markets were stable,\u201d and \u201cthere were some people around the committee who thought that it was trending better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warsh added, \u201cI\u2019d say the jobs data has been moving in a good direction.\u201d The claims data covered the period during which the government surveyed businesses and other establishments for the nonfarm payrolls component of June\u2019s employment report. Claims increased between the May and June survey weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hints at some potential slowing in June job creation,\u201d said John Ryding, senior economic adviser at Brean Capital. \u201cHowever, if we are looking at the broader trend, which Chair Warsh wants to do, there is little evidence of a change in the mean-reverting statistical process that has described weekly jobless claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 172,000 jobs in May. Part of the strength in job growth is likely from low layoffs as some business surveys have shown weakness in employment measures. Economists say policy uncertainty, including import tariffs last year and now the Middle East conflict, is constraining hiring. The U.S. and Iran have signed a ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n

The number of people receiving unemployment benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, increased 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.81 million during the week ended June 6, the claims report showed.<\/p>\n

The increase in the so-called continuing claims aligns with data showing many unemployed people are experiencing long bouts of joblessness. The median duration of unemployment jumped to 11.6 weeks in May, the longest stretch since November 2021, from 11.0 weeks in April, the government reported this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Job seekers attend a small business summit and job fair hosted by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-745781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}