Weekly Jobless Claims Tick Higher

The U.S. Labor Department is out with its weekly jobless claims report. The number of unemployment filings rose by 1,000 to 291,000 in the past week. Thursday’s report also indicated that the prior week’s level was revised up by, 1,000 to 290,000. Bloomberg’s consensus for weekly claims was 293,000, versus the 292,000 consensus estimate from Dow Jones.

Yet another identical statement shows that no unusual factors were included: “There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims.”

Economists use the four-week average to smooth out weekly reports and volatility. That average was 304,750, up by 2,250 claims from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised from 302,250 to 302,500.

The Labor Department went on to show that the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending February 28 was down by 32,496 to 2,859,145. Some 3,350,028 persons were claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014.

With the FOMC meeting announcement having been the market driver on Wednesday, it seems highly unlikely that traders would have been giving much weight to this weekly jobless claims report, which was more or less in line with the consensus estimates, and which had a very minimal revision to the prior week’s report.

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