TechFlow, September 25 — According to Jinshi Data, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States declined last week, but the labor market lost luster due to sluggish hiring.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims for the week ending September 20 fell by 14,000 to 218,000. Despite businesses hoarding workers, they remain reluctant to expand payrolls amid uncertainty caused by protectionist trade policies, which have raised average U.S. tariffs to their highest level in a century. Weak labor demand has eroded the resilience of the job market, prompting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again last week.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration has also reduced labor supply and restrained employment growth. Continuing claims data showed that for the week ending September 13, seasonally adjusted continuing claims decreased by 2,000 to 1.926 million. The average duration of unemployment rose to 24.5 weeks in August from 24.1 weeks, the longest since April 2022, while the unemployment rate climbed to 4.3%, the highest in nearly four years.
