U.S. Jobless Claims Climb More Than Expected To 239,000

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits rose by more than expected in the week ended April 8th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 239,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 228,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 232,000.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving also edged up to 240,000, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 237,750.

"We expect claims to trend higher through the rest of the year and peak in Q4 as the economy begins to emerge from a mild recession," said Oren Klachkin, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

He added, "The upcoming labor market downturn will be modest since the drop in demand will be fairly modest and the labor pool will stay relatively small."

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, dipped by 13,000 to 1.810 million in the week ended April 1st.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose to 1,813,500, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 1,804,000.

Last Friday, the Labor Department released a separate report showing employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with economist estimates in the month of March.

The report said non-farm payroll employment climbed by 236,000 jobs in March after jumping by an upwardly revised 326,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by about 240,000 jobs compared to the addition of 311,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in March from 3.6 percent in February. The unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.