(RTTNews) - The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits came in unchanged in the week ended May 10th
The report said initial jobless claims came in at 229,000 last week, unchanged from the previous week's revised level.
Economists had expected jobless claims to tick up to 229,000 from the 228,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Grace Zwemmer, Associate Economist at Oxford Economics, said jobless claims "remain consistent with a job market characterized by relatively few private sector layoffs."
"For now, the jobless claims data are consistent with a labor market that is stable enough to allow the Federal Reserve to keep policy on hold while it monitors the path of inflation as tariffs kick in," she added.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average rose to 230,500, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 227,250.
The report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance also increased by 9,000 to 1.881 million in the week ended May 3rd.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims crept up to 1,873,500, an increase of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,872,750.
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