Jobless Claims Fall, but Still Elevated
The number of people claiming new jobless benefits dropped last week, but the still-elevated level reflects a continued weakness in the U.S. labor market.</br></br>Separately, U.S. labor costs rose last spring even more than first thought as worker productivity fell, threatening to hurt corporate profits and job growth amid the economy's fight to recover.</br></br>Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 409,000 in the week ended Aug. 27, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims filed in the previous week were revised to 421,000 from an originally reported 417,000.</br></br>Economists had forecast claims would drop by less than they did. A Dow Jones Newswires survey put the expected decline at 7,000. However, the level remains too high: economists generally think the economy is adding more jobs than it is shedding when claims drop below 400,000.</br></br>The four-week moving average of new claims, a more reliable indicator of the labor market's recent performance because it smooths out volatile weekly data, rose by 1,750 to 410,250.