The four-week moving average of new applications, which is seen as a more reliable indicator of the job market’s strength than the weekly figures, fell to 235,500 – marking its lowest level since the end of May.
For the Federal Reserve, which has kept interest rate cuts on pause this year as it assesses the impact of President Trump’s trade policies on the economy, the latest figures won’t shed much light on whether the jobs outlook is darkening.
Last week, government figures showed steady growth in the overall labor market, with the economy adding 147,000 jobs in June as the unemployment rate fell marginally to 4.1%.
The president and his allies have argued that the Fed needs to reduce interest rates immediately, and that its overnight rate is currently far higher than it should be. But Powell and the central bank have said they need more time to judge whether Trump’s tariffs are putting upward pressure on inflation.
For now, Fed decisionmakers are unlikely to be swayed much toward straying from their current approach to the rate outlook.