Financial News: U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb To Nearly Four-Mont

U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb To Nearly Four-Month High

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. unexpectedly increased in the week ended May 30th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 225,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level of 212,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 212,000 from the 215,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 230,000 in the week ended February 7th.

"Initial jobless claims were modestly higher than expected in the week ended May 30, but that increase could reflect seasonal noise around the Memorial Day holiday," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also rose to 214,750, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average of 208,250.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, dipped by 8,000 to 1.777 million in the week ended May 23rd.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still crept up to 1,777,250, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,772,500.

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on employment in the month of May.

Economists currently expect employment to increase by 85,000 jobs in May after jumping by 115,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.3 percent.

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