WASHINGTON – Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States increased by 20,000 last week to 287,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The figure surpassed analysts’ forecasts and represents the largest weekly jump since February, while total claims reached their highest level since the first week of July.
The rolling four-week average of claims, a more reliable indicator of trends in the labor market, increased last week by 4,500 to 277,000, the highest in more than five months.
The four-week average has been below or just slightly above 300,000 since last September.
The number of people receiving unemployment benefits increased by 3,000 to 2.21 million during the week that ended Dec. 19.
Unemployment remained unchanged in November at 5 percent as the economy created 211,000 jobs, the Labor Department said early this month in a report that also adjusted the numbers for September and October to show that 35,000 more jobs were created than initially estimated.
The Labor Department’s broader U6 measure of unemployment, which includes people working part-time who would prefer full-time and workers who have given up looking for a job, remained near double digits in November, at 9.9 percent.
The labor-force participation rate came in last month at 62.5 percent, the lowest since October 1977.
No comments:
Post a Comment