U.S. Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected To Two-Month High

(RTTNews) - A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by more than expected in the week ended August 30th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims climbed to 237,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 229,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 230,000.

With the bigger than expected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting a matching figure in the week ended June 21st.

"Claims edged higher on a trend basis, but not to a level that should ring any alarms about a significant increase in layoffs," said Grace Zwemmer, Associate Economist at Oxford Economics.

The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 231,000, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 228,500.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, edged down by 4,000 to 1.940 million in the week ended August 23rd.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also slipped to 1,946,750, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 1,953,750.

"Continued claims, which are typically noisier than initial claims week to week, declined in the week ended August 23 but remain elevated and consistent with a slow pace of job creation," said Zwemmer.

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on the employment situation in the month of August.

Economists currently expect employment to increase by 75,000 jobs in August after rising by 73,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate is expected to inch up to 4.3 percent from 4.2 percent.