More Americans file for jobless aid but layoffs remain low despite
economic uncertainty over tariffs
[May 30, 2025] By
MATT OTT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Filings for U.S. jobless aid jumped last week but
American workers broadly remain secure in their jobs despite economic
uncertainty over global trade.
Jobless benefits applications rose by 14,000 to 240,000 for the week
ending May 24, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts had forecast
226,000 new applications.
Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as representative of
U.S. layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range
between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy in the
spring of 2020, wiping out millions of jobs.
A sense of relief swept over financial markets early Thursday after a
federal court blocked President Donald Trump from imposing sweeping
tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. Wednesday’s decision
threw into doubt Trump’s signature economic policy that has rattled
global financial markets, frustrated trade partners and raised fears
about inflation intensifying and the economy slumping.
The Trump administration quickly filed notice of appeal and the Supreme
Court will almost certainly be called upon to decide the issue. It
remains unclear whether the White House will respond to the ruling by
pausing all of its emergency power tariffs in the interim.
Trump had already paused or dialed down many of his tariff threats, but
concerns lingered about a global economic slowdown upending a robust
U.S. labor market.
In early May, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark lending rate at
4.3% for the third straight meeting after cutting it three times at the
end of last year.
Fed chair Jerome Powell said the potential for both higher unemployment
and inflation are elevated, an unusual combination that complicates the
central bank’s dual mandate of controlling prices and keeping
unemployment low. Powell said that tariffs have dampened consumer and
business sentiment.
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A hiring sign is displayed at a retail store in Chicago on
Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
 The government reported Thursday
that the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual pace in the first
quarter of 2025, a slight upgrade from its first estimate. Growth
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 economy by dramatically
increasing import taxes to rejuvenate the U.S. manufacturing sector.
Trump has also tried to drastically downsize the federal government
workforce, but many of those cuts are being challenged in the courts
and Congress.
Despite showing traces of weakness during the past year, the labor
market remains robust, with plentiful jobs and relatively few
layoffs.
The government reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly
strong 177,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate held at a
healthy 4.2%.
Companies that have announced job cuts this year include Workday,
Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft and Facebook
parent company Meta.
Labor reported Thursday that the four-week average of jobless
claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week ups and downs
during more volatile stretches, ticked down by 250 to 230,750.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for
the week of May 17 increased by 26,000 to 1.92 million, the most
since November of 2021.
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