U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Edge Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected decrease by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended June 28th.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 233,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 237,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 240,000 from the 236,000 originally reported for the previous week.

"Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits are noisy this time of year, but the dip in the week ended June 28 is encouraging and adds to the list of signs that the labor market is doing reasonably well, and that a July rate cut is off the table," said Ryan Sweet, Chief U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also slipped to 241,500, a decrease of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average of 245,250.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, were unchanged from the previous week's revised level at 1.964 million in the week ended June 21st.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose by 15,500 to 1.954 million, reaching its highest level since November 2021.

A more closely watched report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed employment in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of June.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 147,000 jobs in June after jumping by an upwardly revised 144,000 jobs in May.

Economists had expected employment to increase by 110,000 jobs compared to the addition of 139,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 4.1 percent in June from 4.2 percent in May. The unemployment rate was expected to inch up to 4.3 percent.