Recurring jobless claims, a proxy for hiring, remained below 1.8 million.
The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits remained stable at the start of August, pointing to a stable national labor market.
Initial jobless claims rose by 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 209,000 for the week ending Aug. 8, according to new data released by the Department of Labor on Aug. 13. Economists had projected a reading of 202,000.
The four-week average, which strips out week-to-week volatility, was unchanged at 199,000.
Claims recently fell to their lowest level since 1969 for the second time this year, and they have ranged between 189,0000 to 230,000 this year.
A plethora of employment indicators suggest that labor conditions are stable, despite last month’s surprise job loss.
The economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent. Typically, summertime employment snapshots are anemic as government economists adjust for seasonal factors, including schools’ summer break.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said inflation, not the labor market, is the biggest challenge facing the U.S. economy.
“The biggest problem facing our economy right now is not the collapse of industry and the collapse of jobs; it’s that the prices have been rising too fast,” Goolsbee said in a video published by Wired on Aug. 11. “We got an inflation problem, and people hate inflation.”
Goolsbee—a non-voting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee— pointed to the unemployment rate, low layoffs, and the pace of hiring to support his view that the labor market was “stable, without being good.”
July’s annual consumer inflation decelerated to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent. Core inflation, which omits the volatile energy and food prices and reflects underlying trends, also slowed to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent.
Continuing jobless claims—a proxy for hiring because it measures the number of individuals currently receiving unemployment benefits—declined to a lower-than-expected 1.777 million, the Department of Labor reported. The previous week’s number was downwardly revised to 1.799 million.
By Andrew Moran
