Unemployment benefits applications increase by 22,000 in a week: Labor Department

Applications for unemployment benefits increased by 22,000 last week, according to the Labor Department on Thursday.

Jobless aid applications for the week ending Jan. 31 rose by 22,000 to 231,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said, The Associated Press reported. The number is more than the 211,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

While this was the most significant increase in two months, it is in the same historically low range of the past few years.

In December, employers added just 50,000 jobs, similar to the downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.4%, its first decline since June.

The January jobs report, which was scheduled for release on Friday, has been delayed due to the partial government shutdown earlier this week.

In 2025, the U.S. economy gained just 584,000 jobs, an average of around 50,000 per month.

The Labor Department also said that the four-week moving average of jobless claims rose by 6,000 to 212,250.