U.S. weekly jobless claims at 2-month high
Employment seekers look up job descriptions on phones during a job fair.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to a twomonth high last week amid a gradual easing in labourmarket conditions. The weekly claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday also showed fewer people remaining on jobless rolls towards the end of March, suggesting that laidoff workers continued to find work, though not as easily as two years ago.
“The labour market remains very strong,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial.
Initial claims for State unemployment benefits rose 9,000 to a seasonallyadjusted 2,21,000 for the week ended March 30, the report showed. Claims had bounced around between 2,10,000 and 2,12,000 for much of March. Some economists attributed the largerthanexpected rise in claims to an early Easter this year, which could have thrown off the model the government uses to strip seasonal fluctuations from the data.
“We won’t infer anything from one week’s rise in claims, particularly since it occurred around a holiday, when claims data can be noisier than usual,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York.
A separate report from the Commerce Department showed the trade deficit widened for the second straight month in February as an increase in exports to a record high was offset by surging imports, suggesting trade could be a drag on economic growth in the first quarter. The trade deficit rose 1.9% to $68.9 billion.