Americans filing for jobless benefits climb
Print Edition
THE number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, but the underlying trend continued to point to some strength in the labor market.
Initial claims for state jobless benefits increased 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, the Labor Department said yesterday. Economists had forecast first-time filings for jobless aid rising to 317,000 in the week ended March 29.
The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor market conditions as it irons out week-to-week volatility, hovered near six-month lows, indicating a firmer bias in the labor market.
“It’s broadly consistent with moderate growth in the jobs market,” said Michael Hanson, a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.
Despite last week’s rise, claims have been stable in March, which should support expectations of an acceleration in job growth during the month.
The government’s closely watched employment report today is expected to show nonfarm payrolls increased by 200,000 jobs last month after rising 175,000 in February, according to a Reuters survey of economists. The jobless rate is seen falling one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.6 percent.
A report on Wednesday showed private employers stepped up hiring in March for a second straight month.
The labor market suffered a setback in December and January when unseasonably cold weather gripped large parts of the country.
With temperatures rising, a pickup is on the cards, which should help unleash pent-up demand and put the economy on a stronger growth trajectory.
In a separate report, the Commerce Department said the trade gap increased 7.7 percent to US$42.3 billion in February, the largest since September, as exports fell to their lowest level in five months.
January’s shortfall was revised to US$39.3 billion from a previous US$39.1 billion.
“It should be a modest drag on first-quarter GDP,” said Pierre Ellis, senior global economist at Decision Economics in New York. “It’s relatively strong on the US side but the rest of the world is not helping.”
Economists had forecast the trade deficit falling to US$38.5 billion. In addition to weak exports, February’s rise in the deficit likely reflected an increase in the price of crude oil.
Declining petroleum imports as a domestic energy production boom cuts the nation’s dependency on foreign oil have helped shrink the trade deficit. That saw the current account deficit hitting a 14-year low in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Trade was one of the key drivers of economic growth during the last quarter of last year, a trend unlikely to be repeated in the first quarter.
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