WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits rose modestly last week, suggesting that employers are still retaining workers even as the economy has showed signs of slowing .

Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 30 rose by 8,000 to 237,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s more than the 231,000 new applications economists were expecting.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.

While layoffs are low, hiring has also weakened as part of what many economists describe as a “no hire, no fire” economy. Still, the unemployment rate remains a h

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