Weekly jobless claims move higher

First-time jobless claims ticked up last week while the monthly average dropped to its lowest level in 15 years.

{mosads}Applications for unemployment benefits increased 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 274,000 last week, the Department of Labor said Thursday.

The four-week average — a better gauge of the labor market’s health — fell 1,750 to 266,250, the best showing since April 15, 2000.

Claims have held below 300,000 for 23 weeks, the best streak since 1973, said Gus Faucher, PNC Bank’s senior macroeconomist.

“Claims continue to run at a pace consistent with job growth of better than 200,000 per month,” he said.

“This is more than enough to keep up with growth in the labor force, and thus the economy continues to absorb the labor market slack remaining from the Great Recession.” 

While jobs growth has slowed this year from the burst of hiring in 2014, employers continue to add to their payrolls at a steady pace.

In July, the economy added 215,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained at 5.3 percent, a seven-year low.

Yet even though the labor market has steadily improved, workers are still waiting for boosts to their paychecks.

On that front, economists have expressed concern about languishing worker productivity, which has averaged 0.3 percent over the past year.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, said productivity is anemic and has come to an almost complete stop.

With living standards tied to productivity growth, wages have lagged behind, Zandi explained.