U.S. jobless claims fall, but labor demand remains weak and unemployment rises to a four-year high

Odaily Planet Daily reports that initial jobless claims in the United States fell last week, but the job market lost its luster due to sluggish hiring. The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial claims fell by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 218,000 in the week ending September 20. Despite hoarding workers, businesses remain reluctant to increase payrolls in response to uncertainty caused by protectionist trade policies. These policies have raised average U.S. tariffs to their highest level in a century. Weak labor demand has weakened the labor market's resilience, prompting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates again last week. The Trump administration's crackdown on immigration has also reduced the labor supply and curbed job growth. Initial jobless claims showed that continuing claims fell by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.926 million in the week ending September 13. The average length of unemployment rose from 24.1 weeks in August to 24.5 weeks, the longest since April 2022, and the unemployment rate rose to a nearly four-year high of 4.3%. (Jinshi)