Claims rose to 227,000 for the week ending July 29, up 6,000 from the previous week.
At the same time, U.S. employers cut just 23,697 jobs in July, the lowest number in 11 months, according to employment research firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
“Companies, weary of letting go of needed workers, are finding other ways to cut costs. Many have slowed hiring, but wages continue to rise, particularly for the lowest-wage earners, for the moment,” said Andy Challenger, a senior vice president with the company, in a statement.
Data also showed a large increase in worker productivity and a decrease in the price of labor for employers:
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Productivity surged 3.7 percent in the second quarter, the biggest move since 2020. Still, economists caution quarterly productivity data can be hard to interpret. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had been expecting a rise of only 2.2 percent.
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Total compensation for employees was up 4.5 percent annually in the second quarter, down from 4.9 percent in the first quarter and off a recent high of 5.1 percent in the second quarter of 2022.
“The economy is doing better than expected and a healthy labor market continues to support household spending,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, in a Wednesday statement. “We continue to see a slowdown in pay growth without broad-based job loss.”
The Hill’s Tobias Burns has the latest here.
