Jobless claims rise
New weekly claims for unemployment benefits higher last week than Wall Street forecasts.
December 4, 2003: 8:38 AM EST
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Jobless claims rose in the United States last week, the government said Wednesday, exceeding Wall Street forecasts, as the labor market continued its slow recovery from a long slump.
The Labor Department said 365,000 people filed new claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended Nov. 29, compared with a revised reading of 354,000 in the prior week. Economists, on average, expected 354,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.
U.S. stock market futures gave up some earlier gains after the report, though they still pointed to a positive opening on Wall Street. Treasury bond prices were little changed.
The labor market has long been one of the weakest aspects of the U.S. economy. Even after the latest recession ended in November 2001, nearly a million jobs were lost during the longest stretch without job creation since World War II.
But jobless claims have fallen in recent weeks, and the economy began to add workers to payrolls in September and October. Economists hope that, as the economy's recovery gathers steam, the labor market will continue to improve.
The Labor Department is scheduled to report November figures for unemployment and non-farm payroll growth Friday. Economists, on average, expect unemployment to hold steady at 6 percent and for non-farm payrolls to add 150,000 jobs.
Most economists consider new claims below the 400,000 threshold as a sign of an improving labor market, and last week was the eighth consecutive week of jobless claims below 400,000.
The four-week moving average of new claims, which irons out the volatility of the weekly data, rose to 362,500 last week from a revised 359,500 in the prior week.
Continued claims, the number of people out of work for a week or more, rose to 3.38 million for the week ended Nov. 22, the latest data available, from a revised 3.34 million the prior week
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