Forexpros – The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose unexpectedly, hitting the highest level since late November, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending January 7 rose by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 399,000 from 375,000 on the preceding week, whose figure was revised up from 372,000.
Analysts had expected U.S. jobless to remain unchanged last week at 375,000.
Despite the rise, jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in nine of the past ten weeks.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended December 31 rose to 3.628 million, confounding expectations for a decline to 3.550 million. Continuing claims for the previous week were revised up to 3.605 million from 3.595 million.
The average of new claims over the past four weeks increased by 7,750 to 381,750. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar pared losses against the euro, with EUR/USD edging up 0.13% to trade at 1.2722.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures trimmed gains after the release of the data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a modest 0.1% increase, S&P 500 futures pointed to a gain of 0.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.15%.
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