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U.S. initial jobless claims rise to 270,000

Xinhua, August 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid rose last week, while the job market kept moving upward.

In the week ending Aug. 1, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits increased to 270,000, 3,000 more than the unrevised level of the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility, edged down by 6,500 to 268,250 last week.

Weekly jobless claims in July tend to be volatile due to temporary layoffs and rehiring in the auto industry in economists' eyes, while the four-week moving average provide a more reliable measure of the underlying trend of labor market conditions

Federal Reserve upgraded its assessment of the job market last week, saying the under-utilization of labor resources in the United States has diminished since early this year.

The Labor Department will release its jobs report for July on Friday. The nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in June and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent from 5.5 percent in May. Endite