A day before it was learned the U.S. economy had added 209,000 jobs, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a slight increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 248,000 in the week ended July 1, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 236,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to climb to 245,000 from the 239,000 originally reported for the previous week, according to various media reports.
Meanwhile, Labor Department statistics showed the four-week moving average dropped to 253,250, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 256,750.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell to 1.720 million in the week ended June 24. That’s a drop of 13,000.
“Despite the increase in initial claims, the claims data on the whole are consistent with conditions in the labor market that are too tight for the Fed and keep a rate hike on the table at the FOMC’s meeting later this month,” Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, told Markets Insider.
On Friday, the Labor Department release its monthly employment report for June, which showed the U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in June. The unemployment rate was down to 3.6 percent.
