US Jobless Claims Up Last Week; May CPI Down 0.2%
By SARAH N. LYNCH AND JEFF BATER
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -- Unemployment claims rose in construction, manufacturing and educational services last week, while consumer prices fell a second straight month during May, both signs of a fitful economic recovery, government reports said Thursday.
The Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday that initial claims for jobless benefits rose 12,000 to 472,000 in the week ended June 12, bringing them back up to a level last seen in mid-May.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected claims would fall 6,000. The previous week's level was revised upward, to 460,000 from 456,000.
The report also said claims lasting more than one week increased for the week ended June 5, to 4,571,000 from the previous week's revised level of 4,483,000. The increase came on the heels of a large decline of 234,000 continuing claims reported last Thursday for the week ended May 29.
The sluggish pace of declining claims may suggest that employers are still reluctant to hire and are relying on existing workers to help fill demand.
Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR Inc., said that "even after recent declines, the level of claims is considerably high." He said the degree of improvement probably is being inflated by "the birth-death adjustment and other statistical methodologies' used to calculate economic reports.
A Labor Department economist said Thursday that he had expected to see an increase in initial claims because they tend to go up in the week after a major holiday, but in this case claims rose more than he expected.
In a separate report released Thursday, the Labor Department said U.S. consumer prices fell a second straight month during May and underlying inflation rose slightly. |
