Weekly U.S. jobless claims surprise to the upside

The U.S. labour market eased once again during the previous week, following several months of considerable tightness.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of initial unemployment claims rose by 9,000 to 224,000 over the week ending on 27 January (consensus: 212,000).

The four-week moving average of initial claims meanwhile increased by 5,250 to 207,750.

Secondary claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week until 20 January, jumped by 70,000 to 1.898m.

"WARN notices and Challenger layoff announcements signal that claims will move higher over the next few months, to around 250K," noted Kieran Clancy, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"That would still leave claims at an extremely low level by past standards, but the increase would be clearly visible after months of readings at 200-to-220K, raising fears of a meaningful shift in labour market conditions."