"Taken together, labor market indicators show an economy that is on solid footing and close to our mandate of maximum employment".
- Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since the summer, but the trend remained still consistent with a healthy signs of the US job market. According to the report, initial jobless claims rose to 268,000, showing an increase of 17,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 251,000. Meanwhile, economists had expected jobless claims to reach 253,000 level. The following increase was much bigger than expected, thus jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 270,000 in the week ended June 25th. Claims have been below 300,000 since early 2015, showing the longest such streak since 1970. Employers' reluctance to part with workers is one sign of a tight labor market.
In the meantime, US manufacturing was stronger than expected in November, since the strong greenback remains a headache for producers in the sector. According to the Institute of Supply Management and Markit Economics, the ISM PMI went up to 53.2 in November (52.5 expected.) Regional data received over the past month suggested improvement in the sector and had pointed to a strong national reading.
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