US New Unemployment Claims Slightly Increase... In Line with Market Expectations

Continued Unemployment Benefit Claims Fall Short of Market Expectations

Last week, the number of new unemployment benefit claims in the United States slightly increased compared to the previous week, aligning with market expectations.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor on the 22nd (local time), the number of new unemployment benefit claims for the week of August 11-17 was recorded at 232,000. This is an increase of 4,000 claims compared to the previous week's figure of 228,000, matching experts' forecasts of 232,000 claims.

The number of continuing unemployment benefit claims, which counts those claiming benefits for at least two consecutive weeks, was recorded at 1,863,000 for the week of August 4-10. This exceeded the previous week's revised figure of 1,859,000 but fell short of the market expectation of 1,870,000.

The slight increase in both new and continuing unemployment benefit claims is interpreted as a sign that the U.S. labor market is gradually cooling down.

As the market closely monitors employment trends, the U.S. labor market is analyzed to be less hot than initially expected. The day before, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that the annual revision of nonfarm payroll employment from April last year to March this year was 818,000 less than previously reported. This is the largest downward revision in 15 years since 2009 (824,000). Consequently, the average monthly new employment during this period was revised down by 28%, from 246,000 to 178,000.