Initial jobless claims unexpectedly edged higher last week in a potential sign the labor market may be cooling amid tighter financial conditions. That news comes ahead of the government’s monthly employment report for June due out Friday.
First-time filings for unemployment insurance in the U.S. totaled 235,000 for the week ended July 2, increasing by 4,000 from the prior week’s reading of 231,000 claims, the Department of Labor said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the latest figure to come in at 230,000.
The 4-week moving average, which smooths out some weekly volatility in the data, stood at 1.33 million as of last week, an increase of 16,500 from the previous week’s downwardly revised average of 1.32 million.
The rise in claims marked the highest weekly total since the week ended Jan. 15, and comes as a growing number of companies across corporate America announce hiring freezes and layoffs in anticipation of an economic downturn.
“We think the risk is that initial claims edge higher, but we don’t look for a steep rise in claims from current levels,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. “Reports of layoffs are increasing in some sectors, however demand for workers remains historically high.”
Click here to see the full report from Alexandra Semenova at Yahoo Finance.