U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Pull Back Off Two-Month High

(RTTNews) - A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected in the week ended April 6th after reaching a two-month high in the previous week.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 211,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's revised level of 222,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 215,000 from the 221,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Jobless claims in the week ended March 30th were at their highest level since reaching 225,000 in the week ended January 27th.

The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 214,250, a decrease of 250 from the previous week's revised average of 214,500.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 28,000 to 1.817 million in the week ended March 30th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also crept up to 1,802,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 1,799,250.

"Even though hiring growth is slowing, net payroll growth remains strong thanks to the low level of layoffs in the economy, and there is no sign from the claims data that the story is changing," said Michael Pearce, Deputy Chief U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

"The resilience of the labor market tilts the balance of risks toward later rate cuts from the Fed," he added. "The exact timing depends on the Fed's confidence that inflation is on a path back to 2%."

A more closely watched report released by the Labor Department last Friday showed employment in the U.S. shot up by much more than expected in the month of March.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment spiked by 303,000 jobs in March after surging by a downwardly revised 270,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 275,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent in March from 3.9 percent in February, while economists had expected the unemployment rate to come in unchanged.