The number of Americans signing up for initial jobless benefits rose last week, the government said today, while the number of people remaining on the unemployment rolls topped 3 million for the first time in over eight years.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits, which give an early reading on the resilience of the labour market, rose to 399,000 in the week ended June 30th from a revised 392,000 in the prior week, the US Labour Department said.
The increase was in line with Wall Street expectations.
The once watertight US labour market continues to loosen as the number of people claiming more than a week of benefits rose 52,000 to 3.03 million in the June 23rd week, the latest for which figures are available, from 2.98 million in the prior week and the highest since 3.04 million in the week of November 7th, 1992.