Weekly U.S. New Unemployment Claims Hold Steady at 213,000

Slightly Below Market Expectations

The number of new weekly unemployment benefit claims in the United States remained at a similar level to the previous week.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on March 5 (local time) that the number of new unemployment benefit claims for the week of February 22 to 28 was 213,000, unchanged from the previous week. This figure is slightly below the expert forecast of 215,000 compiled by Dow Jones.

The number of continuing unemployment benefit claims, which refers to those who have applied for unemployment benefits for two weeks or more, was 1,868,000 for the week of February 15 to 21, an increase of 46,000 from the previous week.

As U.S. employment indicators improved in January, the number of unemployment benefit claims, which can gauge changes in the number of unemployed, is also showing a stable trend.

According to the announcement made the previous day by U.S. employment information company Automatic Data Processing (ADP), the number of employees at U.S. private companies in February increased by 63,000 compared to the previous month, exceeding expectations and marking the largest increase since July of last year.

Amid lingering concerns about a weakening job market, market participants are closely watching the U.S. employment report for February, which is scheduled to be released on March 6.

Expert forecasts compiled by Dow Jones expect the number of nonfarm jobs in the U.S. to increase by only 50,000 in February, with the unemployment rate expected to fall again to 4.3%.

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