American workers are taking longer to find jobs.

Data from the Labor Department out Thursday showed 1.89 million continuing weekly unemployment insurance claims were made during the week ending Jan. 25, up from the 1.86 million the week prior and near their highest level of the past three years. This shows more Americans are remaining unemployed for longer and continuing to claim unemployment benefits.

While the number of new Americans filing for weekly claims remains near its lowest level of the past year, reflecting a low layoff environment, economists have argued the elevated level of continuing claims shows its becoming increasingly challenging for workers to find a new job.

Oxford Economics chief US economist Ryan Sweet said workers' current perception of the labor market depends on their employment status.

"Conditions are challenging for those who are unemployed or not in the labor force but want a job," Sweet wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

ADP chief economist Nela Richardson offered a similar opinion, referencing her own firm's data in a call with reporters on Wednesday.

"It's taking longer to find a job," Richardson said. "When we isolate college degree holders in our ADP research, we've seen that it's harder for college degree holders to find a job as well. So it's harder compared to our recent experience in the Great Resignation in 2022. ... We're entering a good but not fantastically fast hiring market."

The Federal Reserve has recently acknowledged the growing challenges for workers in the labor market too.

"It's a low hiring environment," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference on Jan. 29. "So if you have a job, it's all good. But if you have to find a job, the job finding rate, the hiring rates have come down."

To Powell's point, on Tuesday, the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed the hiring rate held flat at 3.4% in December and is hovering near its lowest levels of the past decade. Similarly, the job openings rate has moved lower in recent months, clocking in at 4.5% in December. The job openings rate is now near its lowest level since the labor market's pandemic recovery.

Still, Powell described the labor market as "broadly stable" in his most recent press conference. But with hiring slowing, and economists highlighting that concerns over tariffs and other Trump policies could weigh further on the outlook for new jobs, the key question for investors is whether or not the labor market can stay on solid footing.