Recurring applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose to the highest since November 2021, adding to signs it’s proving more difficult for out-of-work people to reenter the workforce.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, increased to 1.9 million in the week ended March 22, slightly higher than economists expected. Those applications have been hovering just under that level for several months now. Meanwhile, initial claims dipped last week, to 219,000, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.

The rise in recurring claims alongside a relatively subdued level of new claims is consistent with a job market that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described last month as “a low firing and low hiring situation.”

The increase in continuing claims “provides further evidence that businesses are slowing hiring sharply amid heightened economic policy uncertainty,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a note. “The risk ahead is that this gradual upward trend in unemployment gathers momentum, as the pace of layoffs also begins to increase, boosting the flow of initial claims.”

The four-week moving average of new applications, a metric that helps smooth out fluctuations from week-to-week, dropped to 223,000. Before adjusting for seasonal factors, initial claims were little changed.

Applications filed by out-of-work federal employees aren’t included in total jobless claims. After spiking for a couple of weeks in February, claims by those workers have dropped back to levels seen at the end of 2024. The figures will be updated later on Thursday.

A report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas earlier Thursday showed that the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the U.S. government amounted to more than 280,000 planned layoffs of federal workers and contractors across 27 agencies over the past two months. Challenger compiles announced layoffs, and it is unclear whether they will all translate into job losses.

(With assistance from Jarrell Dillard.)

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