WASHINGTON: The number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment-insurance benefits inched up by 2,000 to 234,000 in the week that ended Aug. 19, after hitting a six—month low in the prior week, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits to rebound to 238,000 in the most recent weekly data from 232,000 in the prior week. Last week’s reading was the lowest level since February and the second lowest since the current economic expansion began in 2009. The last time claims were as low was in 1973. Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, said the underlying trend of jobless claims has remained very stable in a range close to 245,000 so far this year. This level of claims is a sign of another month of solid hiring. The department will release the August job data on Sept. 1.
Economists said businesses have been reluctant to fire workers out of a concerned they might not be able to find replacements on short notice. Longer-run trends also showed improvement, with the four-week average of new claims falling 2,750 to 237,750. The four-week average smooths out sharp fluctuations in the more volatile weekly report and gives a better sense of the rate of layoffs. That is the lowest four-week average since mid-May. Also Thursday, the government said continuing claims remained unchanged at 1.95 million in the week that ended Aug. 12. These claims, reported with a lag, reflect the number of people already receiving unemployment checks. The four-week average of continuing claims, which reflect the number of people already receiving benefits, fell 2,750 to 1.96 million.
