U.S. jobless claims rise in first week of January

Jobless claims in the U.S. rose in the first week of January. In the week ended 6 January, initial jobless claims increased 11,000 to 261k from an unrevised 250k a week ago. The rise brought the four-week moving average to 251k, the highest reading since October when hurricanes disrupted labor markets throughout most of the U.S. Meanwhile, continuing claims for the week ended 30 December dropped 35k to 1.867 million, the lowest level since 29 December 1973. The four-week average in continuing claims also moved lower by 6000 to 1.913 million. The insured jobless rate dropped one-tenth to 1.3 percent.

The rise in initial jobless claims is slight a surprise against a backdrop of upside surprises to most of the incoming December data in the U.S. Moreover, the ongoing problems in Puerto Rico have sometimes injected volatility into the weekly claims data, a factor that would be normally ignored since Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are included in the weekly claims data but not the household survey that computes the unemployment rate, noted Barclays in a research report.

“We await further claims data over the second half of the month to assess whether this is the beginning of a trend increase in claims or whether this is simply a temporary rise that will be reversed”, added Barclays.

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