May 1 (UPI) — The Department of Labor said Thursday weekly initial jobless claims are up by a more than expected 18,000 to 241,000, seasonally adjusted.
“In the week ending April 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 241,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week’s revised level,” the Labor Department said in a statement. “The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 222,000 to 223,000.”
The data is for the week ending April 26. There were 189,634 initial claims in the comparable week in 2024, according to the DOL.
“The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 222,000 to 223,000,” the Department of Labor said. “The four-week moving average was 226,000, an increase of 5,500 from the previous week’s revised average.”
Dow Jones economists estimated 225,000 initial unemployment claims.
Pantheon Macroeconomics chief U.S. economist Sam Tombs said much of the jobless claims increase came from New York state and could have been caused by the spring recess in New York public schools.
“Nonetheless, the deterioration in the timeliest hiring and firing indicators over the last couple weeks suggests that jobless claims will trend up over coming weeks,”Tombs wrote in a note.
The Labor Department siad Thursday that the “total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending April 12 was 1,909,168, a decrease of 64,391 from the previous week. There were 1,837,523 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2024.”
The unexpected rise in initial jobless claims adds to other data indicating a wobbly economy hit hard by extreme and unpredictable high tariffs.
The Department of Labor said the highest increases in initial jobless claims for the week ending April 19 were in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Isalnd, Maryland and Arizona.
The largest decreases were in Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, California and Virginia.
In another sign of a weakening economy, U.S. Gross domestic product fell 0.3% at an annual rate, shrinking the economy in the first three months of 2025.
The private payroll company ADP also found U.S. private employers created a much lower than expected 62,000 jobs in April.
The initial jobless claims rise happened as stock prices were down sharply in the first quarter of 2025, the worst stock performance in a new presidential term since Gerald R. Ford 51 years ago.
