(MENAFN) The number of Americans filing new jobless claims reached its highest level in over five months last week, although this is unlikely to signal a significant shift in labor market conditions, which remain exceedingly tight.
The Labor Department said on Thursday that jobless rates stayed at a more than 52-year low at the end of May, highlighting the resilience of the labor market.
The weekly unemployment claims data is being eagerly monitored as firms freeze hiring or consider layoffs in expectation of a recession next year. However, overall labor demand remains high, with 11.4 million job opportunities at the end of April. Economists dismissed last week's larger-than-expected increase in claims as noise.
“Widespread difficulties in hiring workers are still discouraging businesses from laying off workers, but pockets of weakness have emerged among some tech startups as well as retailers which have felt the impact from a shift in consumer spending from goods to services,” stated Dante DeAntonio, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
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