From Bloomberg.com: The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week and the total number receiving payments increased, indicating the labor market may take longer to stabilize.
Initial jobless claims rose by 15,000 to 627,000 in the week ended June 20, from a revised 612,000 the week before, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of people collecting unemployment insurance gained by 29,000 in the prior week, to 6.74 million.
Recent economic data shows some areas of the economy, such as housing and manufacturing, are seeing a smaller pace of decline, and the Federal Reserve said yesterday after a two-day meeting in Washington that the economy’s slump is “slowing.” Even so, companies have been loath to hire new employees, in part because they are waiting for sustained gains in demand.
Today’s report is “just a reminder that the labor market is still in serious trouble and the unemployment rate will continue to increase into 2010,” said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. While the trend in recent weeks shows a slower pace of claims, “hopes for a quick rebound in the labor market are overly optimistic.”
A separate government report today showed U.S. gross domestic product shrank at a 5.5 percent annual pace in the first quarter, less than the 5.7 percent pace previously estimated. The change was spurred by a smaller trade deficit, Commerce Department figures showed.
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