IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The number of U.S. residents who filed for first-time unemployment benefits went up last week.
Initial claims for state jobless benefits increased approximately 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 for last week, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Claims for the previous week – 255,000 – were not revised. That was the lowest level recorded since November 1973.
No special or mitigating numbers were included in the most recent data, the labor department said.
The four-week average of claims, which is considered by analysts and economists to be a better indication of the state of the labor market, fell by 3,750 applications last week, to 274,750, the labor department stated.
Also, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Thursday that the economy, measured in gross domestic product, or GDP, grew at a rate of 2.3 percent during the second quarter.
Both the jobless claims and the GDP figures are indicators of a growing economy, said Jordan Levine, economist and director of economic research at Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.
“On the unemployment claims, we’re well below the 300,000 mark, which is a sign of an expanding labor market,” Levine said. “The GDP number was also solid, and I would expect both of those trends to continue.”
