U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Show Modest Increase

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits saw a modest increase in the week ended March 5th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report showed initial jobless claims crept up to 227,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 216,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to tick up to 216,000 from the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.

“Despite the rise in the latest week, we see further downside for claims,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. “Layoffs are expected to be minimal in a tight labor market with near-record job openings.”

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also inched up to 231,250, an increase of 500 from the previous week’s revised average of 230,750.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also rose by 25,000 to 1.494 million in the week ended February 26th.

Meanwhile, the report showed the four-week moving average of continuing claims fell by 31,250 to 1,506,500, hitting the lowest level since March 1970.

The Labor Department released a separate report last Friday showing another significant increase in U.S. employment in the month of February.

The report showed non-farm payroll employment spiked by 678,000 jobs in February after surging by an upwardly revised 481,000 jobs in January.

Economists had expected employment to jump by 400,000 jobs compared to the addition of 467,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The stronger than expected job growth was led by increases in employment in the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, health care, and construction sectors.

With another jump in employment, the unemployment rate dipped to 3.8 percent in February from 4.0 percent in January.

The unemployment rate, which was expected to edge down to 3.9 percent, fell to its lowest level since hitting 3.5 percent in February of 2020.

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