The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased by the most in five months last week.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, increased by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 211,000 last week, the Labor Department report said Thursday. The four-week average of weekly claims, which smooths out the volatility in the weekly numbers, rose slightly to 197,000.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 195,000 claims for the latest week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out weekly fluctuations, climbed 4,000 to 197,000 last week.
“It is not clear that last week’s rise is signaling a shift in the trend,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in White Plains, New York.
“We do expect demand for workers to ease as the effects of restrictive monetary policy take hold and spread more broadly through the economy. But for now, layoffs remain low and job growth is strong, given companies appear to be hoarding workers.”
Data on Wednesday showed there were 1.9 job openings for every unemployed person in January. The Fed’s Beige Book described the jobs market as remaining “solid” in February, also noting “scattered reports of layoffs” and that “finding workers with desired skills or experience remained challenging.”
In the meantime, on Wall Street, the weekly jobless claims news eased some rate-hike jitters ahead of a key payrolls report that could determine the Fed’s monetary policy path.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.43 points, or 0.24%, at the open to 32,876.83.
The S&P 500 opened higher by 6.65 points, or 0.17%, at 3,998.66, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.30 points, or 0.02%, to 11,578.31 at the opening bell.
