Weekly jobless claims push higher

First-time claims for jobless benefits rose last week, reflecting a steadily growing U.S. labor market amid shaky global growth.

{mosads}Applications for unemployment benefits increased by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 282,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, as employers hang onto their workers despite recent turmoil in global financial markets stirred by uncertainty surrounding China’s economy.

The four-week average, which better projects the direction of the nation’s labor market growth, increased 3,250 to 275,500 but remains near 15-year lows.

On Wednesday, a separate ADP report showed that private-sector employers added 190,000 jobs in August, slightly more than the 177,000 in July even through an unsteady month of stock market shocks and China’s surprise currency devaluation.

“Recent global financial market turmoil has not slowed the U.S. job market, at least not yet,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, with the release of the ADP report.

“Job growth remains strong and broad-based, except in the energy industry, which continues to shed jobs,” Zandi said.

Economists forecast that government’s monthly report due out Friday will show an addition of 213,000 jobs in August. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 5.2 percent, from 5.3 percent.

The economy grew at a 3.7 percent pace in the April-June quarter and economists forecast steady growth for the rest of the year.

That could spur the Federal Reserve to raise its interest rate at its meeting later this month, although some economists expect that the decision may be pushed to December.