U.S. jobless claims ticked down from 250,000 the week before Economists had forecast 250,000.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, rose to 245,500, the highest since August 2023.
The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits the week of June 7 slid to 1.95 million.
Weekly unemployment claim are a proxy for layoffs and mostly have stayed within a healthy band of 200,000 to 250,000 since the economy recovered from a brief but painful COVID-19 recession in 2020, which temporarily wiped out millions of jobs.
