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U.S. initial jobless claims jump to four-month high

Xinhua, January 16, 2015 Adjust font size:

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid rose to a four-month high in the first full week of the year, U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

In the week ending on Jan. 10, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits climbed by 19,000 to 316,000, the highest since early September, the department said.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of labor market conditions, rose by 6,750 to 298,000, but remained below the key 300,000 mark since September.

The advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending on Jan. 3 stood at 2.42 million, a decrease of 51,000 from the previous week's revised level.

Economists said jobless claims tend to rise at the start of each year as season workers are dismissed following the end of the traditional holiday shopping season stretching from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Other indicators suggested that the improving labor market showed little sign of deterioration. The U.S. economy added 252, 000 jobs in December, making 2014 the best year for hiring since 1999, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.6 percent, the lowest level in six and a half years, the Labor Department said last week. Endite