U.S. Jobless Claims Fell Last Week

The number of Americans who newly filed for unemployment benefits declined last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, although the report suggested that the size of the unemployed population continued to grow in June.

In the week through July 5, unemployment filings fell to 227,000, from a revised 232,000 a week earlier. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were forecasting 235,000 claims.

Continuing claims, an indicator of the size of the total unemployed population, came in at 1.97 million in the week through June 28, compared with 1.96 million a week earlier. That is the highest level since November 2021, and a sign that relatively slow hiring is making it harder for people out of work to find new jobs. The continuing-claims data lag the initial-claims data by a week.