After seeing a notable pullback in the previous week, first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits saw a modest uptick in the week ended April 13th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.
The report showed that initial jobless claims edged up to 352,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 348,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 347,000 from the 346,000 originally reported for the previous week.
While jobless claims came in slightly above economist estimates, they remain well off the four-month high set in the week ended March 30th.
The Labor Department also said the less volatile four-week moving average rose to 361,250, an increase of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 358,500.
Meanwhile, continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell to 3.068 million in the week ended April 6th from the preceding week's revised level of 3.103 million.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims dipped to 3,083,000, a decrease of 2,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,085,250.
The latest data covers the survey week for April payrolls, and Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital, noted that claims are now 11,000 above the prior survey period.
"Having said that, it is worth noting that the 4k increase didn't dent the prior week's big decline of 40k too much," Lee said. "Also, in March's survey week, claims were 25k below February, which caused many to believe that the March survey would be solid."
"In other words, we should probably take this latest week with a grain of salt, as it applies to April payrolls," she added. "It is too early to make a good call on April payrolls but it will likely be an improvement from what we saw in March."
Earlier this month, the Labor Department released a report showing that employment edged up by 88,000 jobs in March following an increase of 268,000 jobs in February.
Economists had expected an increase of about 193,000 jobs compared to the addition of 236,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the lackluster job growth during the month, the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipped to 7.6 percent, hitting its lowest level since December of 2008.
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