U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb To 294,000

(RTTNews) - After reporting a notable rebound in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims unexpectedly saw another increase in the week ended April 11th.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 294,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level of 282,000.

The increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge down to 280,000 from the 281,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected increase, jobless claims bounced further off the two-month low of 267,000 set in the week ended March 28th.

The Labor Department also said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 282,750, an increase of 250 from the previous week's revised average of 282,500.

The previous week's four-week moving average was upwardly revised from 282,250 but still represents a nearly fifteen-year low.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 40,000 to 2.268 million in the week ended April 4th.

The notable decrease pulled continuing claims down to their lowest level since hitting 2.63 million in December of 2000.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also fell to a fourteen-year low of 2,329,000, a decrease of 32,750 from the previous week's revised average of 2,361,750.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department released a report showing that U.S. employment rose by much less than expected in March.

The report said non-farm payroll employment rose by 126,000 jobs in March compared to economist estimates for an increase by about 245,000 jobs.

Nonetheless, the report also said the unemployment rate held at a six-year low of 5.5 percent in March, unchanged from February and in line with economist estimates.