Weekly jobless claims jump to 242,000, more than expected in latest sign of economic softening

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Initial filings for unemployment benefits hit their highest level of the year last week in another potential sign of weakness in the labor market.

Jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 22 totaled a seasonally adjusted 242,000, up 22,000 from the previous week’s revised level and higher than the Dow Jones estimate for 225,000, according to a Labor Department report Thursday.

The level of claims matched the highest since early October 2024 and comes amid questions over broader economic growth and worrying signs in recent consumer sentiment surveys.

President Donald Trump has been taking aggressive measures to reduce the federal workforce through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency advisory board. The efforts so far have resulted in tens of thousands of jobs cuts and are expected to continue.

In Washington, D.C., new claims totaled 2,047, an increase of 421, or 26%, according to numbers not adjusted for seasonal factors. That is the largest number for the city since March 25, 2023, according to Labor Department records, and is consistent with a surge that began in early January.

However, the claims trend does not appear to be spreading to the surrounding areas. Virginia and Maryland both saw small declines on the week. California, which also has a large population of federal government workers, saw a decline as well.

“This report showed a healthy gain, but not the first ripples of what likely will be a major wave of unemployment claims, both from layoffs in the federal workforce and at companies such as Starbucks and Southwest,” wrote Robert Frick, corporate economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, showed a small decrease and stood at 1.86 million. However, the four-week moving average of claims, which helps smooth out weekly volatility, rose sharply to 224,000, an increase of 8,500.

There were notable increases in the New England area.