Financial News: U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Climb To Two-Month High

U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Climb To Two-Month High

(RTTNews) - The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by more than expected in the week ended April 4th.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 219,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level of 203,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 210,000 from the 202,000 originally reported for the previous month.

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

"The latest jobless claims data offer no evidence that the US war with Iran has of yet had a notable impact on the labor market," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

She added, "Initial claims rose more than expected in the week ending April 4, but we don't think an upside surprise in one week is sending a signal that labor market conditions are softening."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 209,500, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 208,000.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 38,000 to 1.794 million in the week ended March 28th.

With the decrease, continuing claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 1.791 million in the week ended May 11, 2024.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dipped to 1,823,250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,836,500, hitting its lowest level since the week ended June 8, 2024.

"Continued claims followed their typical see-saw pattern, although the decline in the week ended March 28 more than offset the increase in the prior week," said Vanden Houten. "Continued claims continue to trend lower, reflecting the general drift lower in initial claims since last fall."

Last Friday, the Labor Department released a more closely watched report showing employment in the U.S. jumped by much more than expected in the month of March.

The report said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 178,000 jobs in March after plunging by a revised 133,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to climb by 51,000 jobs compared to the loss of 92,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The Labor Department also said the unemployment rate edged down to 4.3 percent in March from 4.4 percent in February. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.

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