According to Reuters, jobless claims increased by 1,000 filings with 308,000 unemployment claims filed this past week. Despite the uptick, new claims remain below recession and pre-recession levels.
New jobless claims have been falling for much of this year and for weeks there have been fewer of them than even before the 2007-09 recession began, a signal that the long cycle of elevated layoffs had ended.
The four-week average of new claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell 3,750 to 305,000, the lowest level since May 2007.
