The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance remained relatively high last week, which could be another sign that the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are starting to cool a surprisingly resilient job market.
US jobless claims were 264,000 for the week ending June 17, the same revised number from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s a bit more than analysts were expecting. Orders for the past two weeks are the highest since October 2021.
The four-week average, which is less volatile than the weekly average, increased by 8,500 to 255,750. That is the highest level since November 2021.
Jobless claims over the past three weeks have approached 300,000 after being mostly in the high 100,000 to low 200,000 range since the fall of 2021. But that probably won’t be enough for Fed officials, who have previously said that the unemployment rate must rise above 4% in order to reduce inflation.
Labor analysts are reluctant to take the recent surge in aid claims at face value after fraudulent claims in some states pushed the numbers up for a few weeks this spring. The fact that continuous orders fell after three weeks of higher amounts also drew attention. But if aid claims hold at or around 260,000, it could signal a noticeable cooling off in the job market.
“Overall, the pace of claims is picking up a bit more, and most indicators suggest this time could last longer than earlier in the year, when fraud in some states gave us a false indication of a resurgence of claims. orders,” Contingent Macro Advisors wrote in a note to clients.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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