U.S. jobless aid filings fall to 189,000 last week despite multiple economic headwinds, war in Iran
U.S. jobless aid filings fall to 189,000 last week despite multiple economic headwinds, war in Iran
MATT OTT Thu, April 30, 2026 at 12:44 PM UTC
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Zoe Lloyd, a 21-year-old student at Northern Arizona University, works from her laptop at Sosta in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Monday, April 20 2026. (AP Photo/Cheyanne Mumphrey) ()
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits tumbled below 200,000 last week despite a number of economic headwinds including the war in Iran.
U.S. jobless aid applications for the week ending April 25 fell by 26,000 by to 189,000, down from the previous week’s 215,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s well below the 214,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.
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Filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, came in at 207,500, about 3,500 lower than the previous week.
The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending April 18 fell to 1.79 million, a decrease of 23,000.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
