The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits increased more than expected last week and the unemployment rate appeared to have picked up in May, suggesting layoffs were rising as tariffs cloud the economic outlook.
The report from the Labor Department on Thursday showed a surge in applications in Michigan last week, the nation’s motor vehicle assembly hub.
The number of people collecting unemployment checks in mid-May was the largest in 3-1/2 years.
The dimming economic outlook was reinforced by other data showing corporate profits declining by the most in more than four years in the first quarter, pulled down by nonfinancial domestic industries.
A U.S. trade court on Wednesday blocked most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs from going into effect in a sweeping ruling that the president overstepped his authority.
Economists said the ruling, while it offered some relief, had added another layer of uncertainty over the economy.