215,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims in the week ended June 27, down 1,000 from the prior week and below the 225,000 economists had expected.
The drop suggests layoffs remain historically low even as the broader June jobs report showed employers added just 57,000 jobs, less than half May’s pace.
4.2% unemployment masked some weakness: the rate fell from 4.3% largely because some out-of-work people stopped looking and were no longer counted as unemployed.
222,000 was the four-week average of new claims, down 2,500, while continuing claims edged up 2,000 to 1.81 million.
Claims have mostly held in a 200,000-to-250,000 range since the pandemic, but hiring has cooled over two years amid tariffs, federal job cuts and still-high interest rates.