U.S Jobless Claims Rose Last Week

By Patrick Sheridan

U.S. jobless claims rose last week, a sign the labor market remains tentative amid economic uncertainty from the war in Iran.

The number of people who filed for unemployment benefits rose to 215,000 in the week ended May 23, the Labor Department said Thursday. That represented an increase of 5,000 from the previous week's level, which was revised up by 1,000 from 209,000 to 210,000. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal were expecting to see 213,000 new claims.

Continuing claims, which scale with the total size of the unemployed population, was 1.79 million in the week through May 16, versus a revised 1.77 million a week earlier. The data on continuing claims lag the initial-claims data by a week.

Earlier this week the Conference Board said its Present Situation Index--based on consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions--retreated by 3.2 points to 121.2. The group said perceptions of employment conditions declined slightly, with the labor-market differential--the share of consumers saying jobs are "plentiful" minus the share saying jobs are "hard to get"--ticking down by 0.6 percentage point to 6.9%.

Overall, the labor market has remained resilient thus far despite the Iran war, the spike in gasoline prices, mounting inflation fears and worries about artificial intelligence replacing workers.

Write to Patrick Sheridan at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-28-26 0914ET