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New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits surprisingly rose last week to their highest level since January in a sign an anticipated recovery in labor markets may take time, a government report showed on Thursday. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits jumped 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000, up from a slightly upwardly revised 404,000 the preceding week, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting claims to slip to 392,000 from the previously reported 403,000. Jobless claims below 400,000 are associated with steady job growth. The four week moving average, a better measure of underlying trends, climbed to...

(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits rose to an eight-month high last week and productivity growth slowed in the first quarter, clouding the outlook for an economy that is struggling to gain speed. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000, the highest since mid-August, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims were pushed up by factors ranging from spring break layoffs to the introduction of an emergency benefits program. Economists had expected claims to fall to 410,000. A second report from the department showed nonfarm productivity increased at a 1.6...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Applications in the U.S. for unemployment compensation fell by 44,000 last week to 434,000, partly reversing a large spike earlier in April, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected applications for jobless benefits to decline to seasonally adjusted 428,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the prior week. The average of new claims over the past four weeks rose by 4,500 to 436,750, the highest level since November. The four-week average is considered more accurate a gauge of employment trends because it lessens week-to-week volatility in the data. Meanwhile, the number of workers...

The number of Americans filing unemployment claims for the first dropped more than expected last week, the Labor Department said early Thursday. Initial jobless claims dropped by 29,000 to 409,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ended May 14, from an upwardly revised 438,000. Economists were expecting jobless claims to drop to 420,000 from the previous week's originally reported figure of 434,000, according to Briefing.com. Continuing claims for the week ended May 7 dropped 81,000 to 3.71 million from the preceding week's revised level of 3.792 million. Economists were expecting continuing claims of 3.7 million. The advance seasonally...

More Americans filed for their first week of jobless benefits last week, marking the seventh straight week in which more than 400,000 people have been added to the unemployment rolls. In the week ended May 21, 424,000 Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday. That marked an increase of 10,000 from the revised 414,000 initial claims filed the week before, and was significantly more than the 400,000 claims economists had expected for the week.

New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but not enough to assuage fears the labor market recovery has taken a step back. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 422,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, less than economists' expectations for a fall to 415,000. The claims report falls outside the survey period for the government's closely watched data on nonfarm payrolls for May. The government is expected to report on Friday that employers hired 150,000 last month, according to a Reuters survey, after increasing payrolls by 244,000 in April. "Every indication we have...

<p>The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits was mostly unchanged last week, evidence that the struggling economy isn't generating many jobs.</p> <p>Unemployment line The Labor Department says unemployment benefit applications ticked down 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 428,000.</p> <p>Applications have topped 400,000 for 12 straight weeks.</p>

For the eighth week in a row, the number of initial jobless claims remained in the 420K range, according to the Department of Labor’s report today. Last week saw a slight increase of just 1,000 to the number of new claims from the previous week, which got revised upward by 4,000 from the previous week’s initial report: In the week ending June 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 427,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 426,000. The 4-week moving average was 424,000, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised...

(RTTNews) - New claims for unemployment insurance by U.S. workers dropped more than expected in the week ending June 11th, according to figures released Thursday by the Department of Labor. On a seasonally adjusted basis, initial claims fell by 16,000 to 414,000, from the previous week's revised estimate of 430,000. While the new claims levels were lower than the 420,000 most economists had predicted, they remain stubbornly above the 400,000 level that many economists believe is a benchmark of recovering employment. Initial unemployment claims have remained above the 400,000 level for the past 10 weeks, according to Labor Department figures....

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting little improvement in the labor market this month after employment stumbled in May.