Financial News: U.S. Jobless Claims Rise Slightly More Than Expected

U.S. Jobless Claims Rise Slightly More Than Expected To 214,000

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by slightly more than expected in the week ended April 18th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 214,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 208,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 212,000 from the 207,000 originally reported for the previous week.

"Initial jobless claims were a touch higher than expected in the week ended April 18, but we attribute that to seasonal noise," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. "Claims remain at a level that signals a slow pace of layoffs."

"The labor market has become more vulnerable since the start of the war, but the claims data over the last two months show no evidence of cracks," she added. "However, it's always been our expectation that the spike in oil prices would take some time to become apparent in the labor-market data."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 210,750, an increase of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 210,000.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also rose by 12,000 to 1.821 million in the week ended April 11th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also inched up to 1,812,250, an increase of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,811,000.

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