On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced that jobless claims surged in the week ending Sept. 6, with 263,000 new people filing for unemployment insurance.
The weekly jobless claims were 27,000 higher than the previous week, and are now at their highest level in four years, CNBC reported.
"'Cost cutting' [is] back among CEOs and that is corporate speak for more layoffs," Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Economist Heather Long wrote in a post on X. "It's going to be a rough few months ahead as the tariffs impacts work their way through the economy. Americans will experience higher prices and (likely) more layoffs."
The rise in jobless claims is yet more bad news for workers.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, making job growth since Trump began announcing his idiotic tariffs virtually flat. In fact, the BLS said that the economy actually lost jobs in June—the first time that happened since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The grim job creation data came after the BLS said that there are now more job seekers than job openings for the first time since 2021—meaning that those who are out of work will likely have a hard time finding new employment.
BLS also revised its job data on Tuesday to say that the U.S. economy added nearly 1 million fewer jobs between March of 2024 and March of 2025 than it initially estimated.
Related | Another day, another dump of really bleak jobs data
If the labor market wasn't scary enough, the BLS also announced on Thursday that inflation came in hotter than economists expected, with the Consumer Price Index—which measures price increases—jumping 2.9% in August compared to the same time last year.
Economists explicitly blamed the price increases on Trump’s tariffs, which companies foot the bill for and then pass the cost down to consumers. On the positive side, the economic news means that the Federal Reserve Bank is likely to cut interest rates. But it’s not for a good reason.
“The CPI, it’s still too firm,” New Century Advisors' Claudia Sahm told Yahoo Finance. “This is not consistent with making progress toward 2%. When they cut next week, they will not be cutting because we have good news on inflation. They’ll be cutting because we have bad news on employment.”
Democrats, for their part, say the blame for the beleaguered economy lies with one person: President Donald Trump.
"All of this is Trump inflicted," Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) wrote in a post on X after the latest negative economic data was released. "Tariffs plus attacking the independence of the fed and the rule of law didn't work in the 1890s and it won't work today. It just brings on stagflation, and puts monetary policy in a position where it cant respond."
