The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but the underlying trend continued to point to sustained labour market strength.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 266,000 for the week ended July 23, the Labour Department said yesterday.
Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast initial claims rising to 260,000 in the latest week.
Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a healthy labour market, for 73 consecutive weeks, the longest stretch since 1973.
Prices of US Treasuries were unchanged after the data.
US stock futures were trading lower and the dollar was weaker against a basket of currencies. The claims data tend to be volatile around this time of the year when automobile manufacturers normally idle assembly lines for retooling.
Some, however, often keep production running, which can throw off the model the government uses to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data.
A labour Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing last week’s claims data and only claims for Hawaii and Puerto Rico had been estimated.
The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labour market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 1,000 to 256,500 last week, the lowest level since April.
The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday the labour market had “strengthened” and that nonfarm payrolls and other job market measures pointed to some “increase in labour utilisation in recent months.” The US central bank left interest rates unchanged amid concerns over persistently low inflation.
The economy added 287,000 jobs in June, the largest increase this year.
labour market strength is fueling consumer spending, which in turn is spurring faster economic growth.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, the government is expected to report today that gross domestic product increased at a 2.6% annual rate in the second quarter after rising at a 1.1% pace in the January-March period.