More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — and while layoffs remain low, it was the fifth consecutive week that claims topped the 230,000 mark and the most in almost six months.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 2 rose to 235,000, up 4,000 from the previous week and the most since mid-January, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally track with the number of layoffs. Until early June, claims hadn’t eclipsed 220,000 since January and have often been below 200,000 this year.

The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, inched up by 750 from the previous week, to 232,500.

The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending June 25 rose by 51,000 from the previous week, to 1,375,000. That figure has hovered near 50-year lows for months.

Employers posted 11.3 million job openings at the end of May, down from nearly 11.7 million in April. Job openings reached 11.9 million in March, the highest level on records dating back more than 20 years. There are nearly two job openings for every unemployed person.

Many small businesses had openings in June, report says

Half of U.S. small-business owners said they had open positions they could not fill in June, down slightly from a record high, and nearly as many reported raising compensation, indicating persistent hiring challenges and a still-tight labor market.

Fifty percent of firms had vacancies, down 1 percentage point from May, according to data out Thursday from the National Federation of Independent Business. A near-record 48% of small-business owners said they raised compensation, a slight softening from the prior month, but 28% say they intend to increase pay in the coming three months — a pickup from May.

“The labor force participation rate has been slowly rising this year, with more people taking jobs,” Bill Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist, said in a statement. “However, the labor shortage continues to be a difficult problem for small businesses. A few more good months of increased employment might get total employment back to pre-pandemic levels.”

Even so, there were some signs of softening. A net 19% of small-business owners said they plan to create new jobs in the next three months, down 7 percentage points from May.

Amazon Prime members get a year of free Grubhub delivery

Amazon will give its U.S. Prime members free access to meal delivery service Grubhub for a year under a deal announced Wednesday.

The Grubhub Plus membership, which normally costs $9.99 per month, lets customers order from thousands of restaurants with no delivery fees on most orders. Amazon Prime membership costs $139 per year.

Prime members must sign up for the Grubhub service. After one year they will be charged Grubhub’s normal fees unless they deactivate the program.

The deal could give Grubhub a much-needed boost. The Chicago-based company was the U.S. market share leader as recently as January 2019, when it controlled 31% of food delivery sales, according to market research firm YipitData. But rivals DoorDash and Uber Eats chipped away at that lead by offering discounted service and rapidly expanding into suburbs. As of May, Grubhub controlled 11% of sales, while DoorDash held 57% and Uber Eats had 31%.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.