The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but layoffs remain in the historically healthy range of the past few years. U.S. filings for jobless aid in the week ending August 1 rose by 1,000 to 199,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the U.S. job market. Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending July 25 was 1.8 million, an increase of 24,000 from the week before.