U.S. Jobless Claims Climb More Than Expected To 243,000
(RTTNews) - A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits climbed by much more than expected in the week ended July 13th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose to 243,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level of 223,000.
Economists had expected initial jobless claims to edge up to 230,000 from the 222,000 originally reported for the previous week.
"Rising claims imply the labor market is cooling at a measured pace," said Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial. "We expect the upcoming payroll report for July to be a bit softer than the previous month."
"We learned from the recent Beige Book that businesses are not filling open positions as aggressively as they were in previous months," he added. "We should expect more cautionary rhetoric from Fed policy makers about the labor market."
The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 234,750, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average of 233,750.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also climbed by 20,000 to 1.867 million in the week ended July 6th, reaching the highest level since November 2021.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also rose by 11,500 to 1,850,500, hitting its highest level since December 2021.
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