Initial jobless claims showed an unexpected increase in the week ended August 30th, according to a report released by the Department of Labor on Thursday, with the data likely to raise concerns about the strength of the monthly employment report.
The report showed that jobless claims rose to 444,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 429,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to fall to 420,000 from the 425,000 from the originally reported for the previous week.
Despite the monthly increase, however, jobless claims remain well below the six-year high of 457,000 set in the week ended August 2nd.
At the same time, the less volatile four-week moving average edged down to 438,000 from the previous week's revised average of 441,250.
The Labor Department also said that continuing claims in the week ended August 23rd rose to 3.435 million from the preceding week's revised level of 3.429 million.
As mentioned above, the unexpected increase in weekly jobless claims may raise some concerns about the strength of the monthly employment report due to be released on Friday.
Economists expect the monthly report to show a decrease of about 75,000 jobs in August, which would mark the eighth consecutive month of job losses. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 5.7 percent.
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