Upside surprise in weekly US jobless claims at the start of June

The number of people in the States filing for unemployment benefits moved higher during the preceding week.

According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms initial unemployment claims increased by 13,000 over the week ending on 8 June.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the data from one week to the next, jumped by 4,750 to 227,000.

Secondary unemployment claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week finishing on 1 June, rose by 30,000 to 1.82m.

"The latest report was for the week following the Memorial Day holiday and the data could still be subject to some seasonal noise," said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics.

"A modest rise in claims would be consistent with fewer job opportunities, which is apparent in a decline in job openings and fewer workers leaving their jobs voluntarily. However, with layoffs remaining low, we don't expect a sharp rise in claims. The layoff rate in the JOLTS report has been at 1% since November, below the 1.2% average in the year prior to the pandemic."