US jobless claims tick higher

Claims tend to bounce around during July.

The U.S. Department of Labor released its weekly jobless claims as being 270,000 in the prior week.

Firings are at historically low levels as employers hold on to more workers in response to increased demand following a slump in early 2015.

The July jobs report will influence when the Federal Reserve decides to raise interest rates from near-zero levels.

Jobless claims indicate the number of people who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time and are computed every week. This was close to the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 273,000 and only 3,000 higher than the unrevised 267,000 claims that were reported a week ago.

The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 6,500 to 268,250 last week.

The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits fell by 14,000 to 2.26 million in the week ended July 25. Economists expect that employers added another 225,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.3 percent, according to data firm FactSet.

Still, new claims have been under the key 300,000 level for 22 straight weeks, the longest stretch in 15 years. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast the U.S. economy added about 215,000 jobs last month.

“The impacts are expected to be nearly negligible given the size of the announced job cuts relative to the overall labour force as well as the fact that unemployment rates for veterans tend to not be that much different than unemployment rates for non-veterans”, said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.