U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb To Nearly 10-Month High

(RTTNews) - The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected increase by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended June 8th.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 242,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 229,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 225,000.

With the unexpected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 248,000 in the week ended August 12, 2023.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also rose to 227,000, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 222,250.

The report also said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, increased by 30,000 to 1.820 million in the week ended June 1st.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also climbed to 1,796,750, an increase of 8,500 from the previous week's revised average of 1,788,250.

Last Friday, the Labor Department released a separate report showing employment in the U.S. shot up by far more than economists had been expecting in the month of May.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment surged by 272,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 165,000 jobs in April.

Economists had expected employment to increase by about 185,000 jobs compared to the addition of 175,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the report said the unemployment rate crept up to 4.0 percent in May from 3.9 percent in April. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.