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Weekly Jobless Claims, Continuing Applications Increase

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Weekly Jobless Claims, Continuing Applications Increase

Weekly applications for unemployment insurance and continuing claims in the US rose, according to latest official data, which Jefferies said largely point to "stable" labor market conditions.

For the week through June 6, the seasonally adjusted number of initial claims increased by 4,000 to 229,000, the Department of Labor said Thursday. The consensus was for a 220,000 reading in a Bloomberg poll. The four-week moving average totaled 219,000, up by 4,250 from the prior week's unrevised average. Unadjusted claims increased by 39,713 to 228,276, according to the report.

Seasonally adjusted continuing claims for the week ended May 30 reached about 1.8 million, compared with Wall Street's expectations of 1.79 million. Continuing claims climbed by 24,000 from the previous week's level, which was revised down by 6,000. The four-week moving average increased by 4,750 to about 1.78 million, according to the DOL.

"Despite extremely pessimistic views expressed in consumer confidence surveys regarding the economy overall, countless headlines describing job cuts from a variety of businesses, and the phantom job-stealing power of (artificial intelligence), the claims data suggests that labor market conditions are stable," Jefferies Chief US Economist Thomas Simons said in a note e-mailed to. "The labor market is much more resilient than many headlines suggest."

Earlier this week, a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed that US consumers' short-term inflation expectations decreased in May, while the labor market outlook "deteriorated somewhat."

Last week, official data showed that the US economy added 172,000 nonfarm jobs in May, nearly double the 88,000 increase expected in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. The unemployment rate was steady at 4.3%.

"Our broad view remains intact, that the conflict in Iran is unlikely to cause significant disruptions in the US labor market, and instead that conditions are going to continue to improve from the (2025 third-quarter) trough," Simons said Thursday.

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