A day ahead of the release the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits came in unchanged from an upwardly revised level in the week ended March 2nd.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims came in at 217,000, unchanged from the previous week’s revised level.
Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The report also said the less volatile four-week moving average edged down to 212,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 213,000.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 8,000 to 1.906 million in the week ended February 24th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also climbed by 10,250 to 1,888,250, reaching the highest level since December 11, 2021.
On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for February.
Economists currently expect employment to jump by 200,000 jobs in February after surging by 353,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate is expected to come in unchanged at 3.7 percent.
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