Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose to an 11-week high, dampening optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending November 22 increased by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 313,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 292,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 5,000 to 287,000 last week.
The number of Americans applying for new jobless benefits rose above the 300,000-level for the first time in 11 weeks, indicating the labor market recovery is losing momentum.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended November 15 declined to 2.316 million from 2.333 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to rise to 2.360 million.
The four-week moving average was 294,000, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week’s total of 287,750. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.2491 from around 1.2477 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5782 from 1.5776 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 87.76, compared to 87.89 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The Dow futures pointed to a loss of 0.1% at the open, the S&P 500 futures fell 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,198.90 a troy ounce, compared to $1,196.00 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $73.89 a barrel from $74.01 earlier.