The weekly jobless claims in the USA increased slightly, contrary to analysts’ expectations, according to the Labor Department Thursday.
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Meanwhile, the average of new claims over the last four weeks was up 2,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 284,750.
The Labor Department said there were no special factors affecting the initial claims data. Otherwise, there was nothing unusual in the figures, a Labour Department spokesman said when the report was released.
Economists’ estimates in the Bloomberg survey for weekly jobless claims ranged from 265,000 to 295,000.
The number of people collecting aid has dropped 5.5 percent in the past year to 2.3 million.
Signs of growing employment weakness could be seen in another Thursday report that showed a jump of 218% in announced job cuts, by employers based in the USA during January. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag. Economists expect that the jobs report released Friday will show that the economy added a net 200,000 jobs in January, not quite as strong as the 292,000 workers hired in December but a solid showing amid the global tensions. The economy grew only about 0.7% during the 2015 final quarter, as it was held down by headwinds of a stronger dollar and the faltering world demand.
The reports came on the heels of weak data on export growth and consumer spending that suggest the Federal Reserve will probably not raise interest rates in March.
Some economists downplayed the increase in layoffs, citing the ongoing job losses in the energy industry and the impact of a blizzard that buried the northeastern United States in late January.
A low level of layoffs typically signals that employers, in the aggregate, are expanding their payrolls.
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Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open.
