The number of new applicants for unemployment aid in the US beat forecasts, as the labour market in the world’s biggest economy cools.
There were 245,000 initial jobless claims on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week to April 15, according to US labour department data released on Thursday, surpassing last week’s upwardly revised figure and economists’ expectations of 240,000 claims.
Thursday’s report showed that the pace of new claims rose the most in California, New York, Massachusetts and Texas, based on preliminary figures that were not seasonally adjusted.
Continuing claims, which measure the number of Americans actively receiving unemployment aid, increased to 1.86mn in the week ending April 8 from 1.8mn in the previous week.
