U.S. initial jobless claims rise to 263,000

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid rose after falling three consecutive weeks, while job market kept improving as a whole.

In the week ending Aug. 27, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits rose to 263,000, an increase of 2,000 from the unrevised level of the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The data is better than the market expectation of 265,000, while the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility decreased 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average to 263,000.

This marks 78 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, a benchmark for real job growth or loss in the economy, the longest streak since 1970, said the Labor Department.

Meanwhile, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 20 increased 14,000 from the previous week to 2,159,000.

U.S. private companies added 177,000 jobs in August and the payrolls increase in July were revised up to 194,000 according to the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics on Wednesday, based on a monthly survey.

"The U.S. economy will soon be at full employment," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics after the release of the report. Endit