The Labor Department said on Thursday that the less volatile four-week average increased 6,000, to 351,750.
The weekly applications data can be volatile in July because some automakers briefly close their factories to prepare for new models and many schools close. Those factors can create a temporary spike in layoffs.
The broader trend has been favorable. Applications have declined steadily in the last year, as companies have laid off fewer workers and stepped up hiring. In the last six months, employers have added an average of 202,000 jobs a month. That is up from an average of 180,000 in the previous six months.
Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas, said the volatility would most likely continue for the rest of the month and “could mask the true underlying trend in jobless claims data.”
“We believe that labor market conditions remain on a gradually improving trajectory,” she added.
Employers added 195,000 jobs in June, and revisions showed that an additional 70,000 jobs were added in the previous two months. The unemployment rate was 7.6 percent, down from 8.2 percent a year earlier.
Applications fell in the April-June quarter to their lowest level since the recession began, according to calculations by Joseph LaVorgna, chief United States economist at Deutsche Bank. They averaged 346,000 a week in the second quarter. That is the lowest quarterly average since the final three months of 2007, when the recession began; it was then 338,000.
About 4.5 million people received unemployment benefits in the week ending June 22, the latest data available. That is about 50,000 fewer than the previous week and a reduction of 23 percent from a year ago, when there were nearly 5.9 million recipients. Some of those who no longer receive benefits have gotten jobs, but many have simply used up all the benefits available.
Another economic report released on Thursday found that export prices fell by 0.1 percent, matching the expectation in a Reuters poll. Import prices slipped 0.2 percent last month compared with expectations calling for unchanged import prices, signaling global economic growth may be cooling.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/business/economy/new-jobless-claims-rise-but-hiring-shows-gains.html?partner=rss&emc=rss