With the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report looming, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended December 30th.
The report said initial jobless claims edged up to 250,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 247,000.
The increase surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to drop to 240,000 from the 245,000 originally reported for the previous week.
"We wouldn't read too much into that increase, however," said Paul Ashworth, Chief U.S. Economist at Capital Economics. "Claims are notoriously volatile at the best of times and particularly around holidays."
"The bottom line is that claims remain at an unusually low level, providing more evidence of labor market strength," he added.
The less volatile four-week moving average rose to 241,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 238,250.
The Labor Department noted claims taking procedures continue to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands, while the claims taking process in Puerto Rico has still not returned to normal.
Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 37,000 to 1.914 million in the week ended December 23rd.
The four-week moving average of continuing clams still crept up to 1,922,500, an increase of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,921,750.
On Friday, the Labor Department is due to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for December.
The report is expected to show an increase of about 190,000 jobs in December following the jump of 228,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.1 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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