U.S. unemployment-benefits claims rose last week, according to U.S. Labor Department figures released Thursday, continuing a pattern in which layoffs fluctuate without breaking down. For the week ending April 4, the Labor Department reported 219,000 initial applications for unemployment benefits, up by 16,000 from the previous week’s 203,000.
The data also showed that the broader, four-week moving average of jobless claims rose by 1,500 to 209,500, a smoothing measure used to even out week-to-week swings. The Labor Department further reported that the total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the week ending March 28 fell by 38,000 to 1.79 million.
The Labor Department’s report also arrived alongside an account of the recent hiring trend from other labor-market data. The Labor Department said that U.S. employers added 178,000 jobs in March, which pushed the unemployment rate back down to 4.3%, after a larger loss of 92,000 jobs in February.
Against that backdrop, analysts described jobless claims as a near real-time signal for layoffs, with the Labor Department’s weekly updates tracking conditions for workers who have recently been laid off. The reported jump to 219,000 was described by the Associated Press as above expectations from FactSet but still within the range of past several years.
Geopolitical developments added volatility to broader economic expectations. The Associated Press reported that markets and oil moved on the same general theme as the Labor data: a two-week Iran-U.S. ceasefire that followed a period of intensified conflict involving Iran, Israel and Lebanon, and that was framed by investors as a potential improvement for risk sentiment.
In the market reaction, the Associated Press said oil prices dropped sharply after the ceasefire announcement, reaching $95 a barrel, before rising toward $100 early Thursday on skepticism about whether the deal would hold. The report tied the energy shift to Iran’s re-closing of the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping route described as carrying about 20% of the world’s oil.
Financial markets also retreated Thursday after big gains the day before, the Associated Press said. It reported that a barrel of U.S. crude had reached $112 before the ceasefire was announced, after rising from about $67 in the days leading up to the conflict, and that even after a decline, higher energy costs remained a concern for consumers and businesses.
The Associated Press also connected the labor-market and energy picture to the outlook for interest rates. It said inflation was already above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, reducing the odds of a rate cut in the near term, and noted that the government was set to issue its March consumer prices report on Friday.
In addition to the Labor Department figures, the Associated Press pointed to a still-strained job market characterized as “low-hire, low-fire,” and said employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs last year compared with about 1.5 million in 2024, citing FactSet. The report said job cuts at large companies included software maker Oracle, and it cited media reporting that The Walt Disney Co. was preparing to cut 1,000 positions, along with job-cut announcements at Morgan Stanley, Block, UPS and Amazon.
The Labor Department’s latest weekly figures, combined with recent jobs and inflation updates, left the overall picture largely unchanged: hiring has not rebounded strongly enough to reverse the sense of cautious momentum, and layoffs remain a persistent concern for workers trying to re-enter employment.