U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, according to a Labor Department report, suggesting layoffs remained comparatively low even as parts of the economy faced added strain from higher energy costs tied to the Iran war.
For the week ending March 28, initial applications for unemployment benefits declined by 9,000 to 202,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The figure also landed below what analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting, and it sat within the range of recent weeks and years that have kept weekly filings near a steady pattern.
The Labor Department’s report also showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims fell by 3,000 to 207,750. Separately, the total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the prior week ending March 21 increased by 25,000 to 1.84 million.
Economists have treated the weekly unemployment-insurance filing data as a close-to-real-time indicator for layoffs, with the agency’s figures often used to gauge whether hiring is strengthening or weakening. In this cycle, the broader monthly picture has been one of comparatively stable jobless claims, even as hiring began slowing about two years earlier and was further pressured in 2025.
The latest report came as some large companies announced job cuts recently, including Oracle, which media reports said cut thousands of workers. Other companies that had announced job reductions included Morgan Stanley, UPS and Amazon, according to the same account.
The backdrop to the labor data includes economic uncertainty that the Iran war has intensified through energy markets. The report said oil prices surged more than 40% after the Iran conflict and that the higher energy costs have translated into increased prices for businesses and consumers, adding to inflation pressure.
That inflation pressure existed even before the war’s energy-driven spikes, the report said. It cited the Commerce Department’s finding that the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose 2.8% in January compared with a year earlier, above the Fed’s 2% target, and described that persistent inflation as a reason policymakers left the benchmark lending rate unchanged at their last meeting.
The report also said central bank officials voted to raise the rate three times to close out 2025, partly in response to concern about a weakening job market. It characterized the U.S. labor market as stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state—conditions that can keep the official unemployment rate low while still making it difficult for people who lose work to find new jobs.
The report pointed to an upcoming catalyst as well: the March jobs report is due out Friday, following the Labor Department’s Thursday update on jobless claims.
Sources: Associated Press (Matt Ott, April 2, 2026).