US jobless claims rise during latest week

According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of initial unemployment claims increased by 13,000 over the week ending on 24 February to reach 215,000.

Economists had anticipated a rise to 210,000.

The four-week moving average on the other hand, which aims to smooth out the variations in the data from one week to the next, declined by 3,000 to 212,500.

Secondary claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week that ended on 17 February, were up by 45,000 to 1.905m.

"More generally, both initial and continuing claims are still very low by historical standards," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"We expect that to change soon. The WARN numbers, capturing advance notice of plant closures and mass layoffs, have jumped recently and point to initial claims rising significantly over the next few months.

"[...] But we suspect the labour market will start to look significantly weaker by around the middle of the spring."

-- More to follow --