U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Dip Slightly More Than Expected

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits saw a modest decline in the week ended May 3rd, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 228,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 241,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 230,000.

"The previous week's jump in claims was reversed in the week ended May 3, and there is little in the incoming data to challenge the Federal Reserve's assessment that labor market conditions remain solid," said Michael Pearce, Deputy Chief U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average inched up to 227,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 226,000.

The report also said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 29,000 to 1.879 million in the week ended April 29th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose to 1,874,500, an increase of 8,750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,865,750.

"Cutting through the noise, both initial and continued claims remain stable, and claims by federal workers have declined over the past month," said Pearce.

He added, "We expect the latter to rebound towards the end of this month as a renewed wave of layoffs picks up steam, and we anticipate initial jobless claims will rise gently into the second half of the year as the economy slows."

Last Friday, the Labor Department released a separate report showing job growth in the U.S. far exceeded economist estimates in the month of April.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 177,000 jobs in April compared to expectations for an increase of about 130,000 jobs.

However, the jumps in employment in February and March were downwardly revised to 102,000 jobs and 185,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a net downward revision of 58,000 jobs.

The report also said the unemployment rate came in at 4.2 percent in April, unchanged from the previous month and in line with economist estimates.