Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose more than expected last week, but remained in territory consistent with a strengthening labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 29 increased by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 282,000 from the previous week’s total of 270,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 5,000 to 275,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 26 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended August 22 fell to 2.257 million from 2.266 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.250 million.
The four-week moving average was 275,500, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week’s total of 275,500. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1228 from around 1.1230 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5274 from 1.5270 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 120.17 from 120.20 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.86, compared to 95.88 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.4%, the S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.35%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,125.90 a troy ounce, compared to $1,124.20 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $46.26 a barrel from $46.14 earlier.