Job­less claims rise to high­est lev­el since Jan­u­ary amid high­er inter­est rates

The num­ber of new appli­ca­tions for unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits unex­pect­ed­ly increased by 9,000 to 212,000 last week, the high­est lev­el since Jan­u­ary.
The read­ing marks the high­est num­ber of job­less claims in months and shows the labor mar­ket might be tak­ing on a bit of water as the Fed­er­al Reserve keeps inter­est rates high and teas­es anoth­er upward rate revi­sion.
Job­less claims are seen as a proxy for lay­offs — if more peo­ple are claim­ing unem­ploy­ment insur­ance, it sug­gests work­ers are get­ting laid off. The new num­bers are in line with some expec­ta­tions the labor mar­ket will soft­en.
Still, despite the uptick, job­less claims are still rel­a­tive­ly low, sug­gest­ing under­ly­ing strength in the labor mar­ket.
“Net, net, there are no cracks appear­ing i …