The number of U.S. workers filing
initial claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected
last week, an increase that may be overstated because of
difficulties adjusting figures for the Thanksgiving holiday.
States received 349,000 new applications, an increase of
25,000, from almost a three-month low of 324,000, the Labor
Department said in Washington. The number of people continuing to
collect state jobless benefits fell to 2.723 million, the lowest
since April 2001, in the week that ended Nov. 20.
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Applications averaged 336,500 last month. That level
supports expectations among economists that employers added
200,000 workers in November, for a 15th monthly increase. Demand
for workers “continued to improve over the past few weeks,” the
Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its “beige book” summary of
regional conditions.
“On balance, the claims numbers continue to show no sign of
any faltering in the labor market,” James O’Sullivan, a senior
economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Conn.
New orders at U.S. factories rose 0.5 percent in October,
led by military equipment and non-durable goods such as chemicals
and petroleum products, the Commerce Department reported. Orders
were unchanged in September. Excluding armaments, October orders
also were unchanged.
Bloomberg News
