US filings for jobless benefits rise to 197,000 last week, but layoffs
remain historically low
[July 31, 2026] By
MATT OTT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment
benefits rose last week but layoffs remain in the historically healthy
range of the past few years.
U.S. filings for jobless aid in the week ending July 25 rose by 9,000 to
197,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week's
figure was revised up by 1,000 to 188,000 but remains the lowest in more
than 50 years.
Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 207,000 new
applications.
Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative
of layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the
U.S. job market.
Despite surging oil prices resulting from the U.S.-Iran war, the
American job market remains healthy. However, analysts say a prolonged
war and higher than normal energy costs may eventually upend that,
forcing companies to trim their costs by reducing head counts.
Following a 6.6% rise a day earlier, the price for a barrel of U.S.
crude fell slightly more than 1% Thursday to $83.36 a barrel. Gas prices
in the U.S. are also back up above $4 a gallon on average. Besides
squeezing consumers’ budgets, it also hits businesses hard, especially
those which are heavily dependent on fuel.
Also Thursday, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric, PCE,
came in at 3.7%, still well above its 2% target. On top of that, the
government reported Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at an
unexpectedly sluggish 1.5% pace in the April-June quarter.
If inflation remains elevated, Fed officials say they are ready to raise
interest rates to combat higher prices, raising costs for businesses and
making them less likely to hire.
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 In its expansive June jobs report
earlier this month, the government reported that employers pulled
back on hiring, adding only 57,000 jobs. That’s less than half the
previous month’s total and a sign that companies remain cautious
about adding to their head counts. The unemployment rate dropped to
4.2% from 4.3% in May, though that decline is mostly because many
out-of-work people gave up looking for jobs and were no longer
counted as unemployed.
June’s tepid hiring comes after a relative surge in
job gains the previous three months, countering concerns that the
war in Iran could trip up an already wobbly labor market.
Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly
between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the
pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years
ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s
tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering
effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.
Among the companies that have trimmed their workforce recently are
Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks, Walmart and Microsoft.
The Labor Department's report Thursday also showed that the
four-week moving average of weekly jobless claims, which softens
some of the weekly volatility, fell by 5,000 to 202,750.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for
the previous week ending July 18 was 1.78 million, a decline of
7,000 from the previous week.
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