Weekly US jobless claims jump on 'flawed seasonals'

Initial US jobless claims jumped last week as the impact from the partial federal government shutdown began to filtre through, hitting a one-year high in the process, but some economists put the rise down to "flawed seasonals".

According to the Department of Labor, the number of people filing for unemployment claims for the first time shot up by 53,000 over the week ending on 26 January to reach 253,000.

That was more than the 215,000 which economists at Barclays Research had penciled-in.

The four-week moving average on the other hand, which aims to smoothe out the variations in the data from one week to the next, increased by only 5,000 to hit 220,250.

Meanwhile, secondary unemployment claims referencing the week before last rose by 69,000 to hit 1.782m.

"Flawed seasonals are responsible for the recent volatility in claims, and we see no clear evidence that the trend is moving much, if at all.

"We expect claims to drop back to about 225K next week, but the underlying trend probably is still 210-to-220K, close to an all-time low as a share of payroll unemployment. For most people, the risk of being laid off is very low."