The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell last week but remains at a slightly elevated, though not troubling, level.
Jobless claims for the week of Aug. 3 fell by 17,000, to 233,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
That’s fewer than the 240,000 that analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected.
Weekly unemployment claims are widely considered representative of layoffs, and though they have trended higher recently, they remain at historically healthy levels.
Continuing claims, which represent the total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits, rose by 6,000 for the week of July 27 to 1.88 million. That’s the most in more than three years, but also not particularly worrisome, analysts say.
Thursday’s report was the first snapshot of the U.S. labor market since last week’s deeply disappointing jobs data for July sent financial markets spiraling on fears that the economy might be edging toward a recession. Some analysts had suggested that the Federal Reserve might respond by accelerating its timetable for cutting interest rates or cut rates more deeply than previously envisioned.
