By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. jobless claim applications jumped to their highest level in almost four years last week, the latest sign that the labor market is softening.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 6 rose 27,000 to 263,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most filings since the week of Oct. 23, 2021 and well above the 231,000 new applications economists forecast.

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

Despite last week’s increase, layoffs remain relatively low b

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