WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - 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 June 6th.
The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 229,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 225,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 219,000.
With the unexpected climb, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 230,000 in the week ended February 7th.
'Initial jobless claims have moved well off their recent lows, but we don't think the increase is signaling a deteriorating labor market conditions,' said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. 'Labor market indicators taken together paint a stabilized and improving picture.'
Vanden Houten said the unexpected increase in weekly jobless claims 'may be at least in part due to seasonal noise around the end of the school year in some states.'
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also rose to 219,000, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 214,750.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also climbed by 24,000 to 1.795 million in the week ended May 30th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also inched up to 1,780,500, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,775,750.
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