The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial jobless benefit claims increased by 13,000 in the seven days to February 24th, to 215,000—above the 210,000 estimated by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal, but remaining below historic lows, such as the 2019 pre-pandemic average of 218,000. The four-week moving average of claims fell 3,000 to 212,500, while the total number of claims, reported with a one-week lag, rose 45,000 to 1.9m. “We may see some increase in jobless claims as labor market conditions loosen a bit further, but we expect claims will remain below the level that would be consistent with no net job growth,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
