Weekly applications for unemployment benefits rose by 11,000 to 235,000 for the week ending Aug. 16, slightly above economists' forecasts. Weekly claims have mostly remained between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. July payrolls showed just 73,000 jobs added and downward revisions to May and June removed 258,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate to 4.2%. That report prompted President Donald Trump to fire Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington, D.C.'s unemployment rate eclipsed 6% in July amid federal worker layoffs and weaker tourism; nearby states also saw upticks.
Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 16 rose by 11,000 to 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That's slightly more than the 229,000 new applications that economists had forecast. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic more than three years ago.
U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well short of the 115,000 analysts forecast. Worse, revisions to the May and June figures shaved 258,000 jobs off previous estimates and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%. That report sent financial markets spiraling, spurring President Donald Trump to fire Erika McEntarfer, the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tallies the monthly employment numbers.
The BLS reported earlier this week that the unemployment rate in Washington, D.C. eclipsed 6% in July, the third straight month that it was the highest in the U.S. The rising D.C. jobless rate is a reflection of the mass layoffs of federal workers by Trump's Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year. An overall decline in international tourism - a main driver of D.C.'s income - is also expected to have an impact on the climbing unemployment rate in the District.
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