US filings for jobless benefits jump to 258,000, the most in more than a year

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week jumped to its highest level in a year, which analysts are saying is more likely a outcome of Hurricane Helene — and the Boeing machinist strike — than a broader softening in the labor trade.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims jumped by by 33,000 to 258,000 for the week of Oct. 3. That’s the most since Aug. 5, 2023 and well above the 229,000 analysts were expecting.

Analysts highlighted large jumps in jobless advantage applications last week across states that were most affected by Hurricane Helene, including Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

“Claims will likely continue to be elevated in states affected by Helene and Hurricane Milton as well as the Boeing strike until it is resolved,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, navigator U.S. economist of Oxford Economics. “We ponder, though, that the Fed will view these impacts as temporary and still expect it to lower rates by (25 basis points) at the November conference.”

Venden Houten said that Washington state was the most impacted by the Boeing strike and accounted for a disproportionate distribute of the boost.

Applications for jobless benefits are widely considered representative of U.S. layoffs in a given week, however they can be volatile and prone to revision.

The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of that weekly volatility, rose by 6,750 to 231,000.

The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits rose by 42,000 to about 1.86 million for the week of Sept. 28, the most since late July.

Outside of the weather and labor strife, some recent labor trade data has suggested that high profit rates may finally be taking a toll on the labor trade.

In response to weakening employment data and receding customer prices, the Federal safety net last month cut its point of reference profit rate by a half of a percentage point as the central lender shifts its focus from taming worth rise toward supporting the job trade. The Fed’s objective is to achieve a rare “soft landing,” whereby it brings down worth rise without causing a downturn.

It was the Fed’s first rate cut in four years after a series of rate hikes in 2022 and 2023 pushed the federal funds rate to a two-decade high of 5.3%.

worth rise has retreated steadily, approaching the Fed’s 2% target and leading Chair Jerome Powell to declare recently that it was largely under control.

In a divide update Thursday, the government reported that U.S. worth rise reached its lowest point since February 2021.

During the first four months of 2024, applications for jobless benefits averaged just 213,000 a week before rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, supporting the concept that high profit rates were finally cooling a red-warm U.S. job trade.

In August, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total was also considered evidence that the job trade has been slowing steadily, compelling the Fed to commence cutting profit rates.

Despite some signs of labor trade slowing, America’s employers added a surprisingly powerful 254,000 jobs in September, easing some concerns about a weakening job trade and suggesting that the pace of hiring is still solid enough to back a growing economy.

Last month’s boost was far more than economists had expected, and it was up sharply from the 159,000 jobs that were added in August. After rising for most of 2024, the unemployment rate dropped for a second straight month, from 4.2% in August to 4.1% in September.