"Claims are in a pretty steady range, but the story isn't in firings so much as it is in hiring"
- Michael Hanson, a senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Corp.
New applications for the unemployment benefits in the world's biggest economy ticked up slightly during the last week, reflecting uneven improvement in the labour market. The Labor Department said that the number of people who applied for U.S. jobless benefits soared by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 371,000 in the week ended January 5, up from 367,000 a week earlier. The four-week moving average stood at 365,750, a 6,750 increase from the previous week's revised average of 359,000. At the same time, employers added 155,000 in the last month of 2012, nearly matched the average of 153,000 jobs per month in 2011 and 2012. The number of people, which are continue to receive unemployment aid dropped to 5.36 million in the week ended December 22.
"Claims are in a pretty steady range, but the story isn't in firings so much as it is in hiring," said Michael Hanson, a senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York, who projected 375,000 claims for the week. "Hiring has been okay. The process is sluggishly moving forward. We need to see better payrolls data to get faster economic growth."
"The underlying claims trend is still really low," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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