WASHINGTON — The job market is thawing at a snail’s pace, raising doubts about whether consumer spending will become vigorous enough to sustain an economic recovery any time soon.
An unexpected rise in first-time claims for unemployment aid signaled that jobless Americans are still having a hard time finding work.
“Consumer spending is going to have a very difficult time recovering with the labor market as weak as it is,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc.
While the Conference Board said its Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose for a fourth straight month in July, gaining 0.6 percent, the Labor Department said the number of new jobless claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 576,000 last week from a revised figure of 561,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 550,000.
The figures had been trending down after remaining above 600,000 for most of this year. In a healthy economy, initial jobless claims hover around 325,000 or below.
The government report on jobless claims said the number of people continuing to receive aid dropped by 2,000 to 6.24 million. The continuing-claims figures lag behind those for first-time claims by a week.
When federal emergency programs are included, the total number of jobless-benefit recipients was 9.18 million in the week that ended Aug. 1.
