Initial jobless claims rose by 19,000 in the week ended April 30 from the previous week to a level of 200,000, their highest level since the week of Feb. 12, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the US Department of Labor.
However, the level of claims still points to a strong labor market, according to reports.
“The latest level of initial claims filings is still pretty low by broad historical standards, and continuing claims filings kept trending lower through today’s report, so overall we believe that the labor market remains strong,” Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York, told Reuters.
The four-week moving average of jobless claims rose by 8,000 from the previous week to a total of 188,000.