U.S. initial jobless claims rise to four-week high as layoffs build

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- The number of people claiming jobless benefits after being laid off rose to the highest in four weeks last week but remained at a historically low level.

Initial jobless claims rose to 196,000 from 183,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was fractionally higher than the 190,000 expected but still left the four-week average for new jobless claims at an eight-month low of 189,250.

Continuing claims also came in a shade higher than expected at 1.688 million, up 38,000 from the previous week.

The numbers bring one of the big outliers in U.S. economic data a little more into line with other signs of a slowdown but will be unlikely to change perceptions that the labor market remains strong, with plenty of vacancies for the newly laid off to take.

Job openings rose back over 11 million in December, according to the Labor Department's latest monthly survey, while January's labor market report revealed that the labor market had been consistently stronger than it appeared at the end of last year, the Labor Department raised its estimate of total nonfarm employment by over half a million.

"Though the latest data shows a modest pick-up in the level of jobless claims, the increase is from a subdued level and claims continue to signal a tight labor market despite any headline grabbing layoffs of recent weeks," Oxford Economics' Matthew Martin wrote in a note to clients. He said the data showed there is still "plenty of momentum left in the labor market," and that the Federal Reserve is still on track to raise the target range for fed funds again in March.

The Fed has repeatedly stressed the abnormal tightness of the labor market since the fading of the pandemic to justify an aggressive policy tightening cycle, which has now taken rates back to 4.75%. Fed officials continue to indicate that they expect at least one more hike before pausing that cycle.