US initial jobless claims rise in week ended 12 February

The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims registered their sharpest increase in four weeks, well ahead of market expectations for a print of 219,000.

Initial jobless claims increased by 23,000 to 248,000 in the week ended 12 February, according to the Labor Department, while the four-week moving average decreased by 10,500 to 243,250 and continuing claims printed at 1.59m.

While the increase was the first since mid-January, the level still remained markedly lower than the three-month high of 290,000 a month ago as Covid-19 Omicron infections slowed down following a surge across the US.

Oxford Economics said: "Despite the uptick, we expect initial claims to continue to grind back toward 200,000. Layoffs are expected to be minimal in a tight labor market where employers continue to face difficulty hiring workers.

"For the last six weeks continued claims have remained below the pre-pandemic average of 1.71m. We expect continued claims to stay at these levels or decline further as health conditions improve and more workers return to the labor market."