US jobless claims fall last week as layoffs remain low despite global
economic uncertainty
[April 17, 2026] By
MATT OTT
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last
week, remaining in the range of the past few years even as the war in
Iran continues to threaten the global economy.
The number of Americans applying for jobless aid for the week ending
April 11 fell by 11,000 to 207,000 from the previous week’s 218,000, the
Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s less than the 217,000 new
applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting
but within the range of the past several years.
Filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of U.S.
layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job
market.
The Iran war, now in its seventh week, has injected a large degree of
uncertainty about how it will affect the U.S. and global economies even
as Iran and the U.S. agreed to a ceasefire last week.
U.S. financial markets have rebounded in recent weeks and oil prices
have settled in around $92 per barrel, better than last week’s $112 but
still 37% higher than before the war began. Gas prices also remain
elevated, saddling businesses and consumers with higher costs.
The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades sent consumer
prices up 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said
Friday. That’s up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest
yearly increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in
March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.
This comes at a time when U.S. inflation was already above the Federal
Reserve’s 2% target, further diminishing the chances of an interest rate
cut by central bank officials any time soon.
Fed officials voted to raise the rate three times to close 2025 out of
concern for a weakening job market but have held off lowering rates
further this year.
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 The Labor Department reported
earlier this month that U.S. employers added an unexpectedly strong
178,000 new jobs in March, nudging the unemployment rate back down
to 4.3%. That followed a surprisingly large loss of 92,000 jobs in
February. Revisions also have trimmed 69,000 jobs from December and
January payrolls, a sign that the labor market remains under strain.
A number of high-profile companies have cut jobs
recently, including Morgan Stanley,Block, UPSand Amazon.
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
erratic tariff rollouts, his purge of the federal workforce and the
lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.
Employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs last year, compared with
about 1.5 million in 2024, according to the data firm FactSet.
The American labor market appears stuck in what economists call a
“low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate
historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find
a new job.
The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week
moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly
volatility, rose by 500 to 209,750.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for
the previous week ending April 4 rose by 31,000 to 1.82 million, in
line with analyst forecasts.
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