WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week and could trend higher as companies navigate President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 223,000 for the week ended April 5, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 223,000 claims for the latest week.
The Trump administration’s tariffs campaign has severely eroded business and consumer sentiment, which could weigh on investment, spending and demand for labor.
The economy added 228,000 jobs in March while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1% in February.
Trump on Wednesday said he had paused targeted tariffs on trade partners for 90 days, less than 24 hours after steep new duties kicked in and plunged financial markets into turmoil.
But Trump jacked up duties on Chinese merchandise to 125% from 104% after Beijing hit back with a 84% tariff on U.S. goods. The European Union paused its first countermeasures against U.S. tariffs, though the bloc was not mentioned in Trump’s statement.
A 10% blanket duty on almost all U.S. imports remains in place. Trump’s tariffs, which he sees as a tool to raise revenue to offset his promised tax cuts and to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base, have raised the odds of a recession over the next 12 months.
There was still no sign yet that mass firings of federal government workers were impacting the labor market amid ongoing legal battles.
While overall layoffs have remained historically low, hiring has been tepid, resulting in those who lose their jobs experiencing long spells of unemployment.
The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, dropped 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.850 million during the week ending March 29, the claims report showed.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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