Jobless Claims Increase by 1,000
Americans filed 308,000 claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended Sept. 28, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Oct. 3.
The average forecast from economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was an increase to 315,000 weekly claims.
The data showed that employers dismissed fewer workers than the previous week.
“The layoffs side of the labor market is particularly encouraging,” Millan Mulraine, a director of U.S. rates research at TD Securities USA, told Bloomberg. “Businesses are content with the level of payrolls they have. We’re not seeing a lot of job-shedding.”
Labor released the weekly data despite a federal government shutdown that started Oct. 1. Officials told Bloomberg that Labor will not release any other reports during the shutdown, including the monthly unemployment rate due for release Oct. 4.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 305,000 last week, the lowest level since May 2007. The number of people receiving continuing jobless benefits rose by 104,000 to 2.93 million in the week ended Sept. 21.
An Oct. 2 report from the ADP Research Institute found that private-sector employers added 166,000 jobs in September, compared with 159,000 in August.
