The amount of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose again from the predicted 270,000 last week, but the numbers are still indicative of a strengthening labor market, the government said Thursday.
Initial jobless claims, cited when assessing the pace of layoffs, increased by 5,000 to 274,000 for the week ended Aug. 8, the Labor Department revealed Thursday, reported Reuters. Claims for the previous week were adjusted to show 1,000 fewer applications than previously reported.
Even though claims have risen over the past three weeks, they remained below the 300,000 threshold for 23 consecutive weeks, a figure that is associated with a firming job market. Coincidentally, the four-week average of claims dropped by 1,750 to 266,250, the lowest since April 15, 2000, according to USA Today.
Employers added a net total of 215,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate maintained a 7-year low of 5.3 percent, a number that a majority of Federal Reserve officials associate with a steady but low level of inflation.
The report continues "to show no sign of an uptrend, consistent with a still-strong trend in employment growth," said Jim O' Sullivan, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.
Despite last week's rise in claims, the four-week average remains low from a historical perspective, noted Jesse Hurwitz of Barclays, according to Yahoo! News.
"Taken together, the details of this morning's report support our view that labor market conditions have recovered to their two-decade average," said Hurwitz.
