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Washington • The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to a two-month high, interrupting a steady decrease to the lowest level since before the last recession.
Jobless claims climbed by 11,000 to 315,000 in the week ended Sept. 6, which included the Labor Day holiday, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. It was the highest reading since June 28 and exceeded the Bloomberg survey median forecast of 300,000. The data are difficult to adjust during holiday periods, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released.
Initial claims have been hovering near pre-recession lows as the labor market continues to gather strength on the heels of stronger demand. Bigger gains in hiring are probably needed to reduce slack in the labor market and prompt employers to boost wages, which could propel consumer spending.
"Claims have been running around 300,000 for a couple of months now, so I would not regard this as a deterioration in labor demand," said Omair Sharif, a U.S. economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "It was during Labor Day holiday, so odds are that there are some seasonal adjustment problems. Underlying labor demand remains very firm, and certainly that is going to help consumer spending going forward."
Estimates from 48 economists in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 290,000 to 325,000 after a previously reported 302,000 a week earlier.
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, increased to 304,000 from 303,250 the week before.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 9,000 to 2.49 million in the week ended Aug. 30.
In that same period, the unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.9 percent, the report showed.
Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and typically decrease before job growth can accelerate.
U.S. employers added 142,000 workers to their payrolls in August, a slowdown after six straight months of job growth that had exceeded 200,000, a Labor Department report showed last week. The jobless rate edged down to 6.1 percent.
Job gains have been good news for automakers, who have seen demand for cars and light trucks climb. Motor vehicles sold in August at a 17.5 million annualized rate, the fastest since January 2006, according to data from Ward's Automotive Group.
"With the most recent economic indicators showing the recovery was even stronger in the second quarter than anyone expected and with consumer confidence now at seven-year high and monthly jobless claims at near record low levels, there's every reason to believe the auto industry can maintain these levels in the months ahead," William Fay, Toyota's U.S. sales chief, said on an Aug. 1 sales call.
StanCorp Financial Group Inc., the Portland-based holding company for Standard Insurance Co., is looking for stronger employment and wage growth to spur growth in the benefits business.
"We've seen improvement, but not quite what I would describe as robust growth," Chief Financial Officer Floyd Fitz-Hubert Chadee said at a Sept. 4 investor conference. "The most recent reports would seem to point a more optimistic view of employment growth than one might have anticipated, say, 12 months ago, so we'll wait to see how that plays out."
With slack remaining in the labor market, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and her fellow policy makers will probably keep reducing monetary stimulus while keeping interest rates at a record low.
"The labor market has yet to fully recover," Yellen said Aug. 22 in a speech at the Kansas City Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole. The Federal Open Market Committee convenes next week in Washington to discuss monetary policy.