U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Tick Up Slightly but Remain Low

The US Department of Labor announced on Thursday that the number of people applying for jobless claims for the first time in the week ending May 2 increased by 10,000 to 200,000, below the Bloomberg survey economist expectation of 205,000. The previous value was revised from 189,000 to 190,000. As the initial claims had previously fallen close to a multi-decade low in the week before, the slight rebound this week keeps them at a low level, indicating that layoffs have not spread significantly.

Continuing claims for unemployment benefits are also sending the same signal. In the week of April 25, the continuing claims fell to 1.766 million, less than the expected 1.8 million. The previous value was revised from 1.785 million to 1.776 million, setting a new low in two years.

Low initial claims and low continuing claims together point to a condition: the job market is still in a "low hiring, low layoffs" situation. Companies are not hiring aggressively, but even with layoffs announced by companies such as Meta and Nike, there hasn't been a noticeable increase in overall unemployment pressure.