Initial unemployment claims in the United States increase to 230k while continuing claims reach an 11-month high.
Last week saw a slight increase in the number of Americans requesting unemployment benefits, adding to the indications that the jobs market is slowing down.
According to data released on Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, initial claims for unemployment increased to 230,000 last week from 226,000 the week before.
With that, the four-week rolling average of initial claims increased to 230,000, which is the highest level since September.
Around the time of Thanksgiving, weekly claims figures are prone to volatility, thus the 4-week number serves as a more trustworthy trend indication.
Fresh data from the BLS's weekly report also suggested that hiring may be slowing down, at least in some economic sectors.
Unexpectedly, the number of ongoing benefits claims increased to 1.671 million, the highest level since January.
The Federal Reserve's belief that additional interest rate increases are necessary to cool down a labour market is not likely to be altered by the figures.
where there are still more than 1.7 open positions for every unemployed person, despite the fact that unemployment is still at a historically low level.