U.S. filings for jobless benefits rose in the last week of 2025 but remained historically low, a Labor Department report showed Thursday as economists watched signs the labor market was weakening.
For the week ending Jan. 3, the number of Americans filing for unemployment claims increased by 8,000 to 208,000, the Labor Department reported. The figure was also reported as aligning with what analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting.
Jobless claims are often treated as a proxy for layoffs and as a near-real-time indicator of how the job market is doing. For the prior week ending Dec. 27, the total number of Americans filing for benefits jumped by 56,000 to 1.91 million.
The Labor Department also reported that the four-week average of claims fell by 7,250 to 211,750, a measure that smooths out some week-to-week volatility.
The latest claims report came after other government labor data suggested growing instability. The government reported last month that the U.S. gained 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October, a change that helped push the unemployment rate up to 4.6%, the highest since 2021.
The government’s December jobs report is set to be released Friday, with analysts expecting the U.S. added 55,000 non-farm jobs.
In addition to the claims, the Labor Department reported Wednesday that businesses posted far fewer jobs in November than in the previous month, a pattern described as indicating employers were not yet ramping up hiring even as growth had picked up.
In November, businesses and government agencies posted 7.1 million open jobs at the end of the month, down from 7.4 million in October. The report said layoffs also dropped as companies appeared to retain workers even while they were reluctant to add new staff, a trend economists refer to as “low hire, low fire.”
Recent data described a labor market in which hiring had lost momentum, with job creation averaging 35,000 a month since March compared with 71,000 in the 12 months ended in March. The report linked the slowdown to uncertainty raised by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and lingering effects of high interest rates set by the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 to rein in pandemic-era inflation.
In an effort to stabilize a softening labor market, the Federal Reserve trimmed its benchmark lending rate by a quarter-point in the last month—its third straight cut. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said committee members are increasingly concerned the job market is even weaker than it appears, and suggested that recent job figures could be revised lower by as much as 60,000. Powell said that would mean employers had shed about 25,000 jobs a month since the spring, when the Trump administration rolled out its import taxes.
The report also pointed to recent announced job cuts at UPS, General Motors, Amazon and Verizon.