Ahead of Friday’s release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by more than expected in the week ended January 30th.
The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 285,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 277,000.
Economist had expected jobless claims to inch up to 280,000 from the 278,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also ticked up to 284,750, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 282,750.
On the other hand, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 18,000 to 2.255 million in the week ended January 23rd.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose to 2,252,750, an increase of 5,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 2,247,500.
Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for January.
Employment is expected to increase by about 188,000 jobs in January after jumping by 292,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 5.0 percent.
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