"The main issue is the pace of hiring is not picking up. Businesses feel very uncertain about the outlook"
- Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York
The number of Americans who lost their jobs surged more than expected during the last week, supporting the argument for the Federal Reserve to maintain its very accommodative monetary policy stance. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 362,000 in the week ended February 16, up from 342,000 in the preceding week. The less volatile four-week moving average for new claims, a gauge of the trend in layoffs, however, rose by 8,000 to 360,750. At the same time, the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programmes after an initial week of aid rose by 11,000 to 3.15 million in the week ended February 9.
"It's a stable level of claims," said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York, which predicted claims would rise to 365,000. "The main issue is the pace of hiring is not picking up. Businesses feel very uncertain about the outlook."
"The job market is gradually improving but not fast enough for the Fed to remove accommodation. We still think a Fed rate hike is a late 2014 to early 2015 event," said Jacob Oubina, a senior economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.
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