The number of US applications for unemployment benefits remained\nunchanged at higher levels last week, but the trend remained steady as labor\nmarket conditions tightened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Labor Department said on Thursday that preliminary claims for\ngovernment unemployment benefits were flat at 230,000 seasonally adjusted for\nthe week ending April 27. The claims rose 37,000 in the previous week, which\nwas the biggest rise since September 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Economists polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to\n215,000 last week. The Labor Department said that no states were estimated\nduring last week. The jobless claims have been volatile in recent weeks due to\nthe different timing of the Easter holiday as well as the school holidays in\nthe spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A strike by workers at Stop & Shop in New England, which has\nsince ended, may have contributed to the recent increase in claims. Unadjusted\nclaims in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Vermont fell last week\nafter rising in the week ending April 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A growth was recorded in unadjusted claims for New York, which is\nlikely to reflect late spring holidays for public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The four-week moving average for initial claims, which is a\nbetter measure of labor market trends, rose 6,500 to 212,500 last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The claims data do not affect the April employment report, which\nis due on Friday. According to a Reuters survey of economists, non-farm\npayrolls may rise by 185,000 jobs in April after rising by 196,000 jobs in\nMarch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Job gains in the first quarter averaged 180,000, well above the\n100,000 jobs per month needed to keep up with the growth in the working-age\npopulation. Unemployment is expected to stay unchanged at 3.8% in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strength of the sustained labor market on which the economy\nis based encouraged the Federal Reserve on Wednesday to keep rates steady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US central bank has shown little appetite for adjusting its\nstance on monetary policy any time soon, also sticking to the hope that\ninflation will rise towards its target of 2%. The Fed’s main key inflation\nmeasure rose 1.6% in the year to March, the smallest gain in 14 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of\naid rose 17,000 to 1.67 million for the week ending April 20, the claims report\nshowed on Thursday. The four-week moving average for so-called continuing\nclaims fell 13.750 to 1.67 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of US applications for unemployment benefits remained unchanged at higher levels last week, but the trend remained steady as labor market conditions tightened. The Labor Department said on Thursday that preliminary claims for […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[36,34,114,100,109,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skyeconomynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}