A day before the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly increased in the week ended February 27th.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 278,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 272,000.
The modest increase in jobless claims came as a surprise to economists, who had expected claims to edge down to 270,000.
With the unexpected increase, jobless claims climbed further off the nearly three-month low of 262,000 set in the week ended February 13th.
Nonetheless, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average dipped to 270,250, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 272,000.
The drop pulled the four-week moving average down to its lowest level since hitting 269,250 in the week ended November 28th.
Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, crept up by 3,000 to 2.257 million in the week ended February 20th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims still edged down to 2,256,500, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 2,257,250.
Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report.
Employment is expected to increase by about 190,000 jobs in February following the addition of 151,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.9 percent.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com