U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise To 3-Month High

4/28/2011

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for unemployment benefits showed an unexpected increase in the week ended April 23rd, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday, with the data likely to lead to renewed concerns about the outlook for the labor market.
The report showed that initial jobless claims rose by 25,000 to 429,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 404,000. The increase surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to fall to 390,000 from the 403,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected increase, weekly jobless claims rose to their highest level since coming in at 443,000 in the week ended January 22nd.
The Labor Department also said that the less volatile four-week moving average rose to 408,500 from the previous week's revised average of 399,250, climbing back above the key 400,000 level.
Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, said, "The trend over the past few weeks is clearly disappointing as signs were pointing to a more sustainable pick up in the labor market."
"It is likely though that with the growing concern with rising commodity prices as companies do their best to maintain margins combined with uncertainty for those that rely on Japan, a short term reluctance to expand is occurring," he added.
Meanwhile, continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment help, fell to 3.641 million in the week ended April 16th from the preceding week's revised level of 3.709 million. Extended benefits also fell by a net 76,000 in the week ended April 9th.
Next Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its closely watched report on employment in the month of April. Employment increased by 216,000 jobs in March, pushing the unemployment rate down to 8.8 percent.