Weekly Jobless Claims Increase Unexpectedly, Again

Weekly jobless claims have unexpectedly increased by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 317,000 for the week ended June 7, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, marking another second quarter report missing the mark for the negative.

Further, last week’s claims were also revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast first-time applications for jobless aid slipping to 310,000 last week.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the state level data, but the weak employment to population ratio should decrease the number of eligible Americans. Instead, the four-week moving average for new claims, which is widely considered a better measure of underlying labor market conditions as it irons out week-to-week volatility, still increased 4,750 to 315,250.

The economy added 217,000 jobs in May, which is the fourth straight month of job gains above 200,000. However, the U.S. economy must add at least 250,000 monthly if it hopes to simply keep pace with population increases. The unemployment rate held steady at a 5-1/2 year low of 6.3 percent, but that is simply due to the number of Americans leaving the workforce, quitting on the American dream.

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose 11,000 to 2.61 million in the week ended May 31.