WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Jobless claims hit a six-week high, but still remained near pre-recession levels, signaling a slow pace of layoffs, according to government data released Thursday.
The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits rose 21,000 to 311,000 in the week the ended Aug. 9, hitting the highest weekly tally since the end of June, the U.S. Labor Department reported. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected initial claims for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits to rise to 300,000 in the most recent weekly data from an originally reported 289,000 for the prior period. On Thursday, the government tweaked initial claims for the week that ended Aug. 2 to 290,000.
With jobless claims for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits at extremely low levels, that signals that employers are holding onto their workers, a good sign for the labor market.