WASHINGTON — The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign that jobs remain scarce even as the economy recovers.
The increase also may result from the difficulty the Labor Department has in seasonally adjusting the claims around the Easter holiday, which falls on different weeks each year.
“This is . . . a volatile time when the numbers move around quite a bit,” a department analyst said.
The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time claims increased by 18,000 in the week ended April 3, to a seasonally adjusted 460,000. Economists had estimated a drop to 435,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
California also closed its state offices for a holiday on March 31, which likely held down the claims figures. On an unadjusted basis, claims rose by 6,500 to nearly 415,000.
Initial claims have dropped four out of the past six weeks, and many economists say they are likely to soon resume their decline.
“Not everything goes in a straight line,” Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a research note. “Definitely not the claims data.”
“We are far from being out of the woods,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech Wednesday in Dallas. “Many Americans are still grappling with unemployment or foreclosure or both.”
