The amount of Americans filing for jobless benefits has held near to a two-month high suggesting that the US labour market continues to be weak.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 3,000 more applicants, more than what economists had been predicting. The monthly jobs figures, which are considered a good measure of the USA’s labour markets, saw the claimant level rise to 377,750, the highest level since June.
“We’ve seen a little move upward in jobless claims over the last few weeks, but nothing to suggest the economy is in trouble. It’s more the case that we are still in a period of slow growth,” said Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis.
Employers added 96,000 jobs last month, a step down from July’s 141,000 count. While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent in August from 8.3 percent, it was because many Americans had given up the search for work.
The Labour Department cited the rise to reported increases in claims from territories and regions affected by Hurricane Isaac. It believes that decisive action on efforts to curb the jobless rate could be affected by the ongoing Presidential elections, looming tax hikes and a slowdown in Government spending.
“The problems are more on the hiring side than the layoffs side,” said Ryan Sweet a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. “If they panic and start cutting workers that would raise an immediate red flag because layoffs would be a recipe for another recession.”
The unemployment rate has been stuck above 8 percent for more than three years, the first time this has happened since the Great Depression. The sluggish jobs market poses a hurdle to President Barack Obama’s re-election.
It was the lack of progress on lowering the high jobless rate that caused the Federal Reserve to initiate its new round of open ended Quantitative easing. Despite the jobs data the Dollar has continued to make gains against a basket of its peers as market demand for safe-havens increase.
The Pound to Euro exchange rate is currently trading at 1.2515
The Pound to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.6177
The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.5577
The Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is currently trading at 1.2924
The Euro to Pound exchange rate is currently trading at 0.7988
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