Jobless claims down 2,000 last week
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid fell 2,000 last week, government data on Thursday showed, while the number of people still collecting benefits rose to its highest since April.
Initial filings for state unemployment insurance benefits fell to 322,000 for the week ended August 18 from an upwardly revised 324,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. Analysts on Wall Street had expected claims to measure 320,000 last week.
The four-week moving average of claims, which irons out weekly volatility to provide a better sense of underlying job-market trends, rose for the third straight week, climbing to 317,750 last week from 313,000.
U.S. government debt prices were little changed by the data.
The number of unemployed people still on the benefit rolls after drawing an initial week of aid rose to its highest level since mid-April.
"Continued claims continue to edge up," said Christopher Low, chief economist for FTN Financial in New York. "It's an indication of net hiring; the pace of hiring has slowed in recent weeks given the turmoil in the credit market."
"There are about 12,000 layoffs in the mortgage industry in the last 10 days, some of which showed up in this report. But it hasn't had a material impact," Low said.
The number of so-called continued claims rose 16,000 to 2.57 million in the week ended August 11, the latest period for which these figures are available. It had been expected to come in at 2.56 million.
