U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected

(RTTNews) - A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a modest increase by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended November 30th.

The report said initial jobless claims rose to 224,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 215,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 215,000 from the 213,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the upward revision, jobless claims in the week ended November 23rd were unchanged from the week ended November 16th, which marks the lowest level since claims hit 209,000 in the week ended April 27th.

"Initial jobless claims were a touch higher than expected in the week ended November 30, but remain at a level consistent with a relatively limited pace of layoffs," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

She added, "However, mentions of layoffs in the claims data have picked up in recent weeks, particularly in the manufacturing sector."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 218,250, an increase of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 217,500.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 25,000 to 1.871 million in the week ended November 23rd.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dipped to 1,884,250, a decrease of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,887,500.

"Continued claims took a step back in the week ended November 30, falling to their lowest level since mid-October," said Vanden Houten. "Of the states most impacted by recent hurricanes, continued claims remain elevated in North Carolina although they are drifting lower."

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on the employment situation in the month of November.

Economists currently expect employment to jump by 200,000 jobs in November after inching up by 12,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent.