US jobless aid applications rose last week; total still low
Source: AP-Excite
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, though the overall level remains low and points to a healthy job market.
Weekly applications increased 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 282,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose 5,000 to 271,500. The average had fallen to a 15-year low two weeks ago.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They have remained below 300,000, a historically low number, for 12 weeks. That suggests Americans are experiencing solid job security. It also indicates that employers are confident enough in the economic outlook to hold onto their staffs.
"We continue to get signs that the labor market remains resilient," Derek Lindsey, an economist at BNP Paribas, wrote in a note to clients. "The trend in claims, below the pre-recession trough for weeks now, remains in line with ... our expectation for another solid (jobs) report next Friday."
FULL story at link.
In this April 22, 2015 photo, Ralph Logan, general manager of Microtrain, left, shakes hands with a job seeker during a National Career Fairs job fair in Chicago. The U.S. Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week on Thursday, May 28, 2015. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150528/us--unemployment_benefits-63cce5458e.html
