US Jobless Claim Rose Last Week

January 4, 2018 Share Print 0

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose for a third straight week last week, but that likely does not suggest a material shift in labor market conditions as data for several states, including California, were estimated.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 250,000 for the week ended Dec. 30, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 240,000 in the latest week. Claims tend to be volatile around holidays. Data for California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming were estimated.

In addition, the Labor Department said claims-taking procedures continued to be disrupted in the Virgin Islands months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the islands.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.