By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid last week retreated significantly after surging to a nearly four-year high a week earlier.

U.S. filings for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 13 fell by 33,000 to 231,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s less than the 241,000 analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

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The previous week, applications surged to 264,000, their highest level since the week of Oct. 23, 2021. Last week’s figure was revised up by 1,000.

Concerns about the health of the American labor market led the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point on Wednesday as many expected.

The rate cut is a sign that the central bank’s focus has shifted quickly from inflation to jobs as hiring has grounded nearly to a halt in recent months. Lower interest rates could reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans, and business loans, and boost growth and hiring. The problem is that it can also exacerbate inflation, which remains above the Fed’s 2% target.

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a massive preliminary revision of U.S. job gains for the 12 months ending in March, further evidence that the labor market has not been as strong as previously thought.

The BLS’s revised figures showed that U.S. employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year ending in March 2025, The report showed that job gains were tapering long before President Donald Trump rolled out his far-reaching tariffs on U.S. trading partners in April.

The department issues the revisions every year, intending to better account for new businesses and ones that had gone out of business. Final revisions will come out in February 2026.

The updated figures came after the agency reported earlier this month that the economy generated just 22,000 jobs in August, well below the 80,000 economists were expecting.

Earlier this month, the government reported that U.S. employers advertised 7.2 million job openings at the end of July, the first time since April of 2021 that there were more unemployed Americans than job postings.

The July employment report, which showed job gains of just 73,000 and included huge downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiraling and prompted Trump to fire the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data.

The various labor market reports have bolstered fears that Trump’s erratic economic policies, including the unpredictable taxes on imports, have created so much uncertainty that businesses are reluctant to hire.

Broader U.S. economic growth has weakened so far this year as many companies have pulled back on expansion projects amid the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of the tariffs. Growth slowed to about a 1.3% annual rate in the first half of the year, down from 2.5% in 2024.

Thursday’s unemployment benefits report showed that the four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 750 to 240,000.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Sept. 6 fell by 7,000 to 1.92 million.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of 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.

By TERESA CEROJANO and MATT OTT, Associated Press

Strong overnight gains have Wall Street poised to open at record highs Thursday following the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut in nine months.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.8% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7%. Nasdaq futures jumped 1.1%.

Intel shares soared more than 28% after Nvidia announced it was investing $5 billion in the California chipmaker as part of a collaboration to ramp up custom data center and personal computer products. Nvidia shares rose 2.6%.

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Cracker Barrel shares slid 8.2% after the restaurant chain said that it expects lower sales and weaker customer traffic in the coming year as the controversy over its planned logo change continues to play out.

In a conference call with investors on Wednesday, Cracker Barrel said traffic at its restaurants was down 1% in early August, before it announced it was adopting a more simplified logo that upset many of its loyal customers. The company eventually relented and went back to the old logo.

Walt Disney shares were largely unchanged after the entertainment giant announced that its ABC television division had suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after comments that he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say they would not air the show.

Earlier in the day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called Kimmel’s comments “truly sick” and said his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.

As expected on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate, but even more important was the set of projections that U.S. central bank officials published showing where they expect interest rates to go in upcoming years.

That indicated the typical member sees the Fed cutting the federal funds rate two more times by the end of this year and once more in 2026.

Markets initially rose after the rate cut announcement and projections, but quickly gave back gains after Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed that the projections could change and warned against taking them as guarantees of future conditions.

What’s making things difficult for the Fed is that the job market is slowing as inflation is remaining stubbornly high. The Fed is in charge of fixing both, but it has only one tool to do that. And helping one by moving interest rates often hurts the other in the short term.

The Fed had been holding rates steady this year because of the threat that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs will raise prices for all kinds of products. Inflation has so far refused to go back below the Fed’s 2% target, and Fed officials don’t see that happening for a few years.

In midday European trading, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC each climbed 1.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.3% in cautious trading ahead of a Bank of England interest rate decision later in the day.

Asian shares were mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing nearly 1.2% to 45,303.43 as the Bank of Japan started its two-day policy meeting, with rates expected to be left unchanged.

South Korea’s Kospi added 1.4% to 3,461.30, with chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics among advancers.

The Chinese markets were down. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped nearly 1.4% to 26,544.85, while the Shanghai Composite index trimmed earlier gains, losing over 1.1% to 3,831.66.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.8% to 8,745.20 with data released Thursday showing the jobless rate was unchanged at 4.2% in August, but headline employment fell by 5,400 while full-time jobs declined by 40,900.

India’s BSE Sensex was up 0.1%, while Taiwan’s Taiex added 1.3%.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s nearly unanimous decision Wednesday to reduce its key interest rate was seen by many observers as a quiet show of unity and independence amid President Donald Trump’s relentless pressure for steeper cuts and his unprecedented effort to fire a top Fed official.

Many Fed-watchers expected a contentious two-day meeting this week, with the economy’s future uncertain and a Trump appointee hastily added to the board just hours before the meeting began. The White House has also floated several members of the Fed’s governing board as potential replacements for the current chair, Jerome Powell, when his term ends in May, creating incentives for those officials to push for the deep rate cuts Trump has demanded.

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Some economists expected as many as three dissenting votes among the 12 voting members of the rate-setting committee, which would be the most in five years and somewhat unusual for a consensus-driven organization. Even four dissents — which hasn’t happened since 1992 — weren’t out of the question.

Trump has appointed three members to the Fed’s governing board — two in his first term — all of whom could have voted in favor of steeper cuts.

And many officials on the rate-setting committee are wary of cutting too quickly, with inflation still clearly above the Fed’s 2% target. Some observers thought one of those policymakers could dissent in the other direction — in favor of not cutting rates at all.

Instead, just one official dissented from the Fed’s decision to reduce its rate by a quarter-point: Stephen Miran, who was nominated by Trump to an empty seat and hurriedly approved by the Senate late Monday, just hours before the two-day meeting began.

Brian Bethune, a Boston College economist, was impressed by the Fed’s unity in the face of White House pressure.

“They all came together to support what seems to be a very balanced decision,’’ he said. The nearly unanimous vote “sends a very strong message that they’re not going to bow to the monarch. They’re going to do what’s appropriate for the economy.’’

Trump has said that one of the Fed governors he appointed in 2018 — Christopher Waller — is a potential replacement for Powell, and Waller dissented in favor of a rate cut in July, when the Fed kept borrowing costs unchanged. Another Trump appointee from his first term, Michelle Bowman, also dissented in July. Yet on Wednesday they both voted with their colleagues.

On social media, Jason Furman, a top economic adviser in the Obama White House, posted that he was “thrilled’’ that Trump appointees Bowman and Waller did not join in Miran’s dissent. “Bodes well for the Fed’s independence,’’ wrote Furman, now an economist at Harvard University.

In the weeks leading up to the meeting, Trump sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, after accusing her of mortgage fraud, which she has denied. It was the first time in the Fed’s 112-year history that a president has sought to remove a governor.

Many legal experts consider the firing a threat to the Fed’s independence, as Trump has openly discussed securing a majority on the Fed’s governing board. Cook sued to keep her job and a court ruled she could remain on the Fed’s board while her lawsuit is resolved.

An appeals court upheld that decision late Monday, enabling Cook to vote in favor of a rate cut Wednesday. Also late Monday, the Senate voted along party lines to confirm Miran as a Fed governor. He was sworn in Tuesday morning.

Previous presidents have appointed their economic advisers to the Fed. Former chair Ben Bernanke was an adviser in the Bush administration before being appointed chair of the Fed. But Miran’s case is unusual because he is keeping his position at the White House, while taking unpaid leave.

Powell has always sought to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump and avoided commenting on Cook’s case during a news conference Wednesday, and he didn’t say anything directly about Miran’s status.

“We’re strongly committed to maintaining our independence and beyond that I really don’t have anything to share,” Powell said when asked about Miran.

Powell also repeatedly noted that with inflation still above the Fed’s 2% target, while unemployment has also risen, it’s not clear what steps the Fed should take next. If it cuts its rate too much, it could overstimulate the economy and accelerate inflation. If it keeps its rate too high, an ongoing hiring slowdown could get worse.

“It’s challenging to know what to do,” Powell said. “There are no risk-free paths now.”

Nevertheless, “we came together at the meeting and acted with a high degree of unity,” he added.

Claudia Sahm, a former Fed economist and now chief economist at New Century Advisors, said Fed policymakers likely acted out of support for the Fed as an institution.

“The institution is under attack,” she said. “This was not the time for three dissents.”

AP Business Writers Paul Wiseman and Alex Veiga contributed to this report. Veiga contributed from Los Angeles.

By NICOLAS GARRIGA, THOMAS ADAMSON and JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Protesters hit France with transport strikes, notably hobbling the Paris Metro, demonstrations and traffic slowdowns and blockades Thursday, pitting the power of the streets against President Emmanuel Macron ‘s government and its proposals to cut funding for public services that underpin the French way of life.

The first whiffs of police teargas came before daybreak, with scuffles between riot officers and protesters in Paris. Nationwide demonstrations, from France’s biggest cities to small towns, were expected to mobilize hundreds of thousands of marchers, voicing anger about mounting poverty, sharpening inequality and struggles for low-paid workers and others to make ends meet.

“We say ‘no’ to the government. We’ve had enough. There’s no more money, a high cost of living,” striking transport worker Nadia Belhoum said at a before-dawn protest targeting a Paris bus depot. She described “people agonizing, being squeezed like a lemon even if there’s no more juice.”

Unions targeting budget cuts

Labor unions that called strikes are pushing for the abandonment of proposed budget cuts, social welfare freezes and other belt-tightening that opponents contend will further hit the pockets of low-paid and middle-class workers and which triggered the collapse of successive governments that sought to push through savings.

Opponents of Macron’s business-friendly leadership complain that taxpayer-funded public services — free schools and public hospitals, subsidized health care, unemployment benefits and other safety nets that are cherished in France — are being eroded. Left-wing parties and their supporters want the wealthy and businesses to pay more, rather than see spending cuts to plug holes in France’s finances and to rein in its debts.

“Public service is falling apart,” said teacher Claudia Nunez. “It’s always the same people who pay.”

New PM’s baptism of fire

The day of upheaval — with strikes also impacting schools, industry and other sectors of the European Union’s second-largest economy — aimed to turn up the heat on new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Macron appointed him last week, tasking Lecornu with building parliamentary support for belt-tightening that brought down his predecessors.

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“Bringing in Lecornu doesn’t change anything — he’s just another man in a suit who will follow Macron’s line,” said 22-year-old student Juliette Martin.

“We want our voices heard. People my age feel like no one in politics is speaking for us,” she said. “It’s always our generation that ends up with the insecurity and the debt.”

Unions have decried budget proposals by Macron’s minority governments, weakened by their lack of a dependable majority in parliament, as brutal and punitive for workers, retirees and others who are vulnerable.

“The bourgeoisie of this country have been gorging themselves, they don’t even know what to do with their money anymore. So if there is indeed a crisis, the question is who should pay for it,” said Fabien Villedieu, a leader of the SUD-Rail train workers union. “We are asking that the government’s austerity plan that consists of making the poorest in this country always pay — whether they are employees, retirees, students — ends and that we make the richest in this country pay.”

Striking rail workers waving flares made a brief foray into the Paris headquarters of the Economics Ministry, leaving trails of smoke in the air before leaving.

Macron’s opponents also continue to denounce unpopular pension reforms that he railroaded through parliament and which raised the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, triggering a firestorm of anger and rounds of protest earlier in what is his second and last term as president, which ends in 2027.

Massive police operation

The government said it was deploying police in exceptionally large numbers — about 80,000 in all — to keep order. Police were ordered to break up traffic blockades and other efforts to prevent people who weren’t protesting from going about their business. Paris police used tear gas to disperse a before-dawn blockade of a bus depot. French broadcasters also reported sporadic clashes in the cites of Nantes, in the west, and Lyon in the southeast, with volleys of police tear gas and projectiles targeting officers.

The Interior Ministry reported 94 arrests nationwide by midday.

“Every time there’s a protest, it feels like daily life is held hostage,” said office worker Nathalie Laurent, grappling with disruptions on the Paris Metro during her morning commute.

“You can feel the frustration in the air. People are tired,” she said. “It’s not very democratic when ordinary people can’t even do their jobs. And Lecornu — he’s only just started, but if this is his idea of stability, then he has a long way to go. We don’t need big speeches, we need to feel that someone in government understands what this chaos means for us.”

Few Metros outside rush-hours

The Paris Metro operator said rush-hour services suffered fewer disruptions than anticipated but that traffic largely stopped outside those hours except on three driverless automated lines.

French national rail company SNCF said “a few disruptions” were expected on high-speed trains to France and Europe, but most will run.

Regional rail lines, as well as the Paris Metro and commuter trains, will be more severely impacted.

In airports, only few disruptions are anticipated as the main air traffic controllers union decided to postponed its call for a strike pending the appointment of a new Cabinet.

Last week, a day of anti-government action across France saw streets choked with smoke, barricades in flames and volleys of tear gas as protesters denounced budget cuts and political turmoil.

Although falling short of its self-declared intention of total disruption, the “Block Everything” campaign still managed to paralyze parts of daily life and ignite hundreds of hot spots across the country.

Associated Press journalists Sylvie Corbet, Michael Euler, Oleg Cetinic and Yesica Brumec in Paris contributed.