Jobless claims off 7-month high, but oil layoffs a concern
| Washington
The number of Americans filing new聽claims聽for unemployment benefits fell last week from a seven-month high, pointing to continued improvement in labor market conditions.
Initial聽claims聽for state unemployment benefits slipped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 307,000 for the week ended Jan. 17, the Labor Department said on Thursday.
That reversed the bulk of the prior week's increase which had pushed聽claims聽to their highest level since early June, but fell short of economists expectations for a 300,000 reading.
Economists had dismissed the prior week's increase as "noise" given that聽claims聽data is difficult to adjust for seasonal variations around the holidays. Some, however, wondered if some of the elevation in聽claims聽reflected layoffs in the oil industry in the wake of plunging crude prices.
"It is unclear at this point whether or not this move up in the trend reflects issues seasonally adjusting the data around the holidays or if it represents a more meaningful deterioration in the labor market," said聽Daniel Silver, an economist at JP Morgan in New York.
State-level data for the week ending Jan. 10 showed an increase in聽claims聽in the oil-producing states like聽Texas,尝辞耻颈蝉颈补苍补听补苍诲听North Dakota. But聽claims聽also rose in states such聽Missouri,聽Indiana聽and聽Illinois, which are not oil-dependent.
Oilfield service provider Baker Hughes Inc this week announced it would cut 7,000 jobs, with most of the redundancies expected in the first quarter, because of slowing drilling activity.聽Schlumberger聽NV has announced 9,000 job cuts.
Crude oil prices have plunged almost 60 percent since June, hitting five-year lows as increased shale production in the聽United States聽and weak global demand has caused a glut on the market.
The four-week moving average of聽claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, increased 6,500 last week to 306,500, taking it above the 300,000 mark for the first time since September.
The聽claims聽data covered the week during which the government surveyed employers for January's nonfarm payrolls.
Despite the gyrations in聽claims聽and the four-week average rising 7,750 between the December and January payroll survey periods, there is little doubt that the labor market is tightening.
Employment gains have exceeded 200,000 in each of the last 11 months, the longest stretch since 1994, and job openings are near 14-year highs. In addition, the ratio of unemployed people for every job opening is the lowest since early 2008.
The聽claims聽report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid increased 15,000 to 2.44 million in the week ended Jan. 10.
