The numbers: Initial jobless claims rose 7,000 to 225,000 in the week ended November 5, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had estimated new claims would rise 2,000 from last week’s initial estimate of 219,000.
Key details: The number of people already collecting jobless benefits rose by 6,000 to 1.49 million. This is the highest amount since the week ended March 26.
The increase in raw or actual claims topped 200,000 for the first time since July.
Big picture: Labor market conditions remain tight – at least for now. The government reported last week that the economy added 261,000 jobs in October.
Still, economists think the pace of the Federal Reserve’s recent rate hikes will eventually slow the economy and cause firms to layoff workers.
In recent days, Facebook parent Meta
META,
and other tech giants have announced layoffs.
Looking ahead: “Layoff announcements from larger companies have become more frequent. So we are likely to see this number rise in the weeks and months ahead,” said Tom Simons, economist at Jefferies, in a note to clients.
Market reaction: Stocks
DJIA,
SPX,
were set to open sharply higher on Thursday after the October consumer inflation report came in better than expected while the yield on the 10-year yield
TMUBMUSD10Y,
slipped below 4%.
