U.S. Jobless Claims Rose by 10,000 Last Week
June 30 2016 - 9:10AM
Dow Jones News
WASHINGTON--The number of Americans filing new applications for
jobless benefits rose last week, but it remained at a historically
low level.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs
across the U.S., rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 in
the week ended June 25, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected
265,000 new claims. Claims for the week ended June 18 were revised
slightly down to 258,000.
Despite the increase, last week's figure is still low enough to
be consistent with ongoing job creation. New claims have remained
below 300,000 for 69 straight weeks, the longest streak since 1973,
when the U.S. workforce was far smaller than it is today.
But the rise comes amid questions about whether the labor market
is running out of steam. Hiring slowed in May, with employers
adding just 38,000 jobs, the weakest gain since September 2010.
Average monthly job growth over the prior three months was 116,000,
a sharp slowdown from 2015's average monthly growth of 229,000.
Economists expect a hiring rebound in June, but it is possible
that the economy is in the later stages of a business cycle in
which both claims and job creation are simultaneously at low
levels.
"The fact that claims are low does not imply that job growth is
going to re-accelerate in any meaningful way on a sustained basis,"
economists from Deutsche Bank wrote in a note to clients on
Wednesday. June's employment figures will be reported on July
8.
Data on unemployment claims can be volatile from week to week.
The Labor Department said no special factors affected last week's
figure.
Jobless claims have been falling since peaking in the spring of
2009, toward the recession's end. They touched a four-decade low in
April, and have mostly remained modestly above that level
since.
The four-week moving average, which helps even out short-run
swings in the data, remained at 266,750 last week after the
previous week's level was revised slightly downward.
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen took note of the recent
hiring slowdown in a speech to Congress last week, but said it was
"important not to overreact to one or two reports," and noted that
wage growth appeared to be picking up.
"We will be watching the job market carefully to see whether the
recent slowing in employment growth is transitory, as we believe it
is," she said. Fed officials hold their next monetary policy
meeting on July 26-27.
Thursday's report showed continuing unemployment claims,
reflecting workers drawing jobless benefits for more than one week,
fell by 20,000 to 2,120,000 in the week ended June 18. Continuing
claims are reported with a one-week lag. The seasonally adjusted
insured unemployment rate for those covered by unemployment
insurance ticked down a tenth of a percentage point to 1.5%.
Roughly 36,000 unionized Verizon workers, who had been on strike
since April, returned to work in June after ratifying a new
contract.
Write to Anna Louie Sussman at anna.sussman@wsj.com and Josh
Mitchell at joshua.mitchell@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 30, 2016 08:55 ET (12:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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